Looking Through The Eagle's Eyes
by Heldon16
Summary: Five Years after being sorted into Ravenclaw, Hermione Granger is about to begin her fifth year in Hogwarts School. However as dark times begin to plauge the castle Hermione crosses path with a certain Red-Headed Gryffindor
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One - Awkward Meetings.

Hermione Granger said goodbye to her parents as she climbed aboard the Hogwarts Express to begin her fifth year at Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She loved school, she loved her lessons and she loved her friends, they had so much in common with her; they like her loved to learn and to read books, they would spend hours in the library reading in their little study group which they had officially founded two weeks into the first year, when they were young and eager to learn. Now they were older but still as eager because she knew, you could never learn enough. She found her friends in a carriage waiting for her; her friends consisted of Lisa Tupin, Padma Patil and Terry Boot.

"Hey Hermy!" Terry said a little too warmly as he opened the door for her, allowing her to enter and sit down next to Lisa, who was reading the Daily Prophet, she caught sight of a picture off Harry Potter, a boy in her year belonging to Gryffindor house; he was rather famous but she thought he was a little bit arrogant because of it, but she couldn't really feel bad feelings towards him after the terrible life he has had so far. Harry bore many scars from throughout his life; from the lighting scar on his forehead from the famous attempted murder or the scars he collected when he was almost crushed to death by a devil's snare plant in the first year; only managing to escape by pure luck. Personally she thought it was quite reckless and stupid to run into a situation without knowing all the facts.

The train ride was fun, we talked about what to expect with our O.W.L tests coming up in the forthcoming year, something which Hermione was extremely excited about, and they talked about a variety of subjects until they reached the subject of Harry Potter and his underage criminal trial.

"He claimed Dementors attacked him, which is absurd because they would never attack someone for no reason" claimed Terry seeming very proud of himself for raising such a excellent point.

"I reckon he's innocent" Padma smiled "I mean my sister knows him better than anyone, she's always going on about the connection between her and Harry, she even hinted they've been dating since the Yule Ball last year" she claimed, seemingly even more smug than Terry.

"Please" laughed Lisa "We all know the only person in the school that Harry will ever talk to about this stuff is that Ronald Weasley kid" she stated in her matter-of-factly voice and Hermione had to silently agree, Harry and Ronald did seem to have a extremely close friendship; it was well known they were like brothers. "Your sister's just trying to make herself seem more popular, I mean they didn't get on that well at the ball if I remember, Harry kept getting distracted and left half way through" Lisa smiled - she had claimed victory. Hermione knew that Padma was thinking back to the Ball, but she didn't remember much as she had such a good time with Ronald to pay attention to much else; Hermione had never asked why Padma didn't try to follow up the night with Ronald into a actual relationship.

"Who do you think the Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher is this year?" Terry asked and they all thought about their previous teachers. Professor Quirrell had been killed trying to murder Harry Potter in their first year, Professor Lockhart had been suspended after being assaulted by Ronald Weasley during the "Ginny Weasley Incident" in the second year, Professor Lupin had been a werewolf who had been exposed by Snape the day after Sirius Black was proven to be innocent and Professor Moody hadn't been Moody at all but a death eater who had been captured and had his soul sucked out through his mouth. It was safe to say the job didn't have the best history.

"Hopefully someone who can actually do their job without getting caught up in the messed up life of Harry Potter" Lisa laughed, and Hermione had to agree; the Dark Art teachers all seemed to connect back to Harry in some way shape or form; with the exception of Lockhart, but that changed at the end of year.

"I hope its some who can give all his attention to his responsibilities this year, it's a very important year for our studies" Hermione spoke up, her nose slightly turned up into the air and the others agreed with her, and they noticed that Hogwarts was appearing on the horizon

"Well ladies, I shall leave you in peace" Terry smiled as he left the carriage to give them privacy to get changed into their robes. Once they had finished, Terry re-entered the cabin, having found a place to change himself as he was wearing his robes.

"Just got dressed in the same carriage as Harry and Ron" he spoke "you wouldn't believe the amount of scars they both have" he said and the girls seemed interested, Hermione however was not one of them, she thought about all the painful memories the two young boys must have, she had seen into their eyes once and it scared her; they seemed so much older than they should be, she knew they were. Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley; the children of war.

Getting of the train, Hermione once again found herself lost in the crowd, having lost sight of Terry and the others, who she guessed would be waiting for her at the horse ridden carriages. She walked forward peering over the crowd as she moved trying to spot her friends when before she knew it she walked straight into someone, knocking them into the wall.

"Oh my god I'm sorry" she repeated three times in 0.45 seconds setting a new world record for fastest apology, glancing over to see her victim her eyes met the flaming red hair that could only belong to a member of one family, and instantly knew which brother she had ran into "Don't worry about it" he said quickly, laughing slightly, the two stared at each other for a second, and Hermione couldn't help but blush as he looked into his eyes, she looked away quickly and saw his ears turn red. "I gotta go" Ron said and rushed off disappearing through the crowd and Hermione couldn't help but watch him walk away before he completely disappeared into the crowd.

"Hermione!" Lisa's voice rang out and she turned quickly and joined her friends as they climbed aboard the black carriage. She didn't take part in the excited discussion about the new school year; her mind was elsewhere trapped on the image of a red-haired boy stood in front of her, and the look in his eyes when they met her's. It was a look she couldn't place.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two - A New Dawn At Hogwarts

Like every year the sight of the great hall was a welcome relief to Hermione, she now could feel at peace knowing she had a full year of studying ahead of her; the prospect always made her feel like a eleven year old girl again. She and the rest of them sat down at the Ravenclaw table, and immediately looked up to the staff table

"I think that's the new teacher" Lisa said, not sounding that enthusiastic and Hermione turned to look and couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed herself; sat at the table was a small woman who had a wide face which resembled a toad, she was dressed completely in pink and had a large bow perched on top her hair. "Well, I think its too early to be judging her, I mean look at all the other teachers we've had, all have been unorthodox but they've all turned out okay haven't they" Hermione spoke out trying to quash her own concerns about the new teacher, but she was a teacher and Hermione was a prefect - that's right, she wore the badge proudly on her robes, the teachers had actually given her this honour and she was going to do everything in her ability to prove that she deserved it. She looked over at the other tables; where Sytherin prefects Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson where sitting together, as were Hufflepuff prefects Ernie McMillian and Hannah Abbot. The Gryffindor prefects however were sat apart, Pavarti Patil was sat talking to Lavender Brown while down the table Ronald Weasley was talking to Harry Potter in what seemed like hushed whispers, she noticed both were looking at the new teacher with a look of great distaste. She looked down her own table to see Michael Corner talking to Terry.

It just after Dumbledore stood up that it happened, the new teacher who was indeed the new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher, stood up and actually interrupted the speech; Lisa seemed to on the verge of laughter, Padma was shocked and Hermione herself couldn't help but feel a little shocked, no one ever interrupted Dumbledore. Twenty seconds into the speech and people began to talk over her, which Hermione found incredibly rude; her first day on the job and this is the respect she gets of her students, at least the prefects were listening she thought smugly, however she then noticed she was the only prefect actually listening; Ronald and Ernie seemed to be trying, but both looked like they had recently learned to sleep with their eyes open. Hermione couldn't help but feel abit worried about her words, it almost sounded like the Ministry were taking over Hogwarts; but then she reminded herself they would never do that, Hogwarts was perfect as it was and the government had no reason to get involved.

"Hermione, are you sure those md3 things you told me about don't work in here?" Lisa asked

"Mp3 Lisa, and no, no electrical devices can work at Hogwarts" Hermione smiled back, she loved imparting her knowledge to other people. The speech ended and Hermione quickly began to clap as the new teacher sat back down.

"Not the exciting start I had in mind" she heard Terry say as Michael muttered in agreement, and then Dumbledore excused everyone, and with that Hermione jumped to her feet "first years with me, follow me to common room" she said jumping to her feet, she saw the other prefects follow suit, all expect Ronald who seemed to be more interested in talking to Harry than doing his duties. Honestly.

"Keep up, just follow us" Michael smiled as he spoke to the first years, and Hermione couldn't help but feel happy, as her and Michael guided the new Ravenclaw students through the halls of Hogwarts for the first time.

"Watch the staircases, they like to change" Hermione informed them, smiling at the memory of receiving the same information herself, and before she knew it they arrived at the common room, and her and Michael both turned to the first years "now this is the entrance to the Ravenclaw Common room, unlike the other common rooms which require a password, ours highlights our wisdom, and asks us a question, only by giving the right answer can you gain access to the room" Hermione smiled to the first years, before turning to Michael who began to speak "now if you get your question wrong, you don't get a second chance so someone else has to come along and let you in, but you don't have to worry, the year you are and in thus your stage in the magical education, so it will only ask questions which you should know the answer to, given that you listen in class" he smiled Hermione was sure she saw some of a girls smile back, something which she found incredibly humours. Hermione turned to the entrance which spoke "Name on exception to Gwamp's law of Transfiguration" and Hermione smiled, she knew this "Food" she said loud, clear and smugly.

Hermione and Michael lead the first years into the common room, and to their respective dormitory's, they said goodnight to each headed to her own dormitories, as she walked up the staircase she could hear Lisa and Padma talking through the door

"So what about you and Ron anyway?" she heard Lisa ask

"Nothing, I mean he was really sweet at the Yule Ball, nervous and shy but it worked for him, but he just wasn't my type" Padma replied "plus, why would anyone want Ron when Harry's right next to him" and Hermione couldn't help but feel a twinge of annoyance at those words, she was about to enter the room when she heard Lisa's reply "I don't know, I mean Harry may be famous and all, but Ron's a lot more handsome, and I've heard he's really funny" Lisa spoke, and with that Hermione walked into the room.

"Hey Hermione, how was prefect duty with Michael?" Padma asked, a small twinkle in her eyes, she noticed a slight smirk on Lisa's face.

"It was okay" Hermione answered, before quickly changing the subject "so what do you think of Umbridge?" she asked, and Padma and Lisa both seemed to share the same opinion as her; they would give her a chance, but they weren't getting their hopes up.

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**A/N: So what you think?, you like the Ravenclaw Characters?, what about Hermione without the influence of Ron and Harry?, let me know what you think in your lovely reviews. *warning shameless advertising alert* also if you get the time, check out my other Potter fics. **

**Next Chapter: Umbridge's lesson and aftermath. **


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three - A History Of Vandalism, By Mr Ronald Weasley

Hermione awoke the next day feeling afresh and ready for her first day of classes, hoping for a exciting and productive day of learning. She quickly got dressed and together with Lisa she walked down to the great hall; Padma had gone to meet her sister while Terry always slept in late.

"So what lesson do you think we'll have first?" Hermione asked, they didn't get their timetable till after breakfast, and waiting for it was always exciting for Hermione. Lisa on the other hand, while she enjoyed her lessons, didn't mind which order they came in.

"You think I should cut my hair?" Lisa asked and Hermione couldn't help but roll her eyes, Lisa had long dirty blond hair and for the last four years had seemed perfectly contempt with her appearance, but lately she Hermione had noticed changes in her, as if she was trying to make herself more attractive. "Its really up to you, personally I think your hair is fine the way it is, but that's just me, you might have another.." Hermione spoke until she was ever so rudely interrupted by Lisa "Hermione, your rambling again" she smiled, and together they walked into the great hall.

Since it had just passed 8am, the hall was quite empty with just the usual early risers sat at their tables. She noticed Neville Longbottem's sitting alone at the Gryffindor table, something which was a regular occurrence though she couldn't understand why, from what she knew Neville was a lovely person; and Hermione hated not understanding things.

"So Hermione, me and Padma were talking last night, and I was wondering if you had your eyes on any boys?" Lisa asked as they sat down, Hermione just shrugged her shoulders "oh come on Hermione, what about Michael, you two are gonna get to spend a lot of lonely nights alone patrolling the corridors" she smiled a mischievous grin as she spoke. Hermione couldn't help but blush but also feel like Lisa looked too much into things "Michael, please, he has half the girl population of Hogwarts after him, I however am not one of them" she said her nose reaching new heights, it was true that Michael was popular with the girls, but despite that he had always remained single.

As the hall filled up some more, Hermione spotted Ronald and Harry walk into the room, once again talking in what seemed like urgent whispers; it was all they seemed to do these days. "Hey guess what" Padma squealed as she rushed to sit next to them "major gossip, apparently Harry had a massive bust-up with Seamus last night in the common room, Harry insulted Seamus's mother so they had this massive argument, Ron got involved, and then Pavarti told me that Harry and Ron got into this massive brawl with Dean and Seamus, she said that Ron even smashed poor Dead through a table!" she smiled, positively delighted to bring such juicy gossip, Hermione couldn't help but feel like she was exaggerating slightly, Lisa seemed to follow her line of thinking "so Harry and Ron had a massive fight yesterday, and yet not a single mark today" she smiled, pointing the duo out to her friend, and she was right, they bore no marks from the fight that allegedly took place.

Just after nine, the heads of houses headed down and walked across the tables handing out the timetables, Hermione was literally bouncing with excitement as Flitwick moved closer with the timetables hovered beside him. Lisa was the first to get hers and looked at it, seemingly displeased as she read the first line, Hermione quickly grabbed hers and read intently; her lessons today were to be , Divination, Divination and then Defence Against The Dark Arts. She wouldn't help but feel slightly excited about the prospect of a new teacher; and a whole new teaching style she would be experiencing.

"Lets go, time for Divination" Padma said and the three got to their feet, quickly to be joined by Terry and Michael as they headed through the staircases. Like all their classes they shared Divination with the Hufflepuffs. Hermione enjoyed this because her house got on well with Ravenclaw, and she knew this was in great contrast with the Gryffindor and the Slytherins.

"You think they would get new desks or something" Lisa laughed, as she pointed to a section of small written engraved into the desk, Hermione leaned over to read "Ronald Weasley died off boredom in this spot February 17th 1993" Hermione couldn't help but give a small chuckle but then felt repulsed with herself and reminded herself that vandalism was not funny, Lisa and Terry on the other hand thought it was hilarious "what a way to go poor guy, feel sorry for him" Lisa laughed

"Well Lisa, I'm sure you could find a way to make him feel better" Terry laughed and Lisa blushed deep red. Hermione just turned away from their juvenile convosation and wait for the lesson to begin; truth be told however she hated this class, she could spend this time doing more productive things like studying in the library.

"Welcome, once more!" the bug eyed professor exploded, appearing out of the shadows "as you know this year is your O.W.L year, so we must cast ourselves into more expansive ventures into the art of your education!" she almost shouted, Hermione was sure Michael's fringe blew up as if it was hit by high wind.

The lesson moved without a hitch, and Herbology while a lot more interesting still went without much to report, then after a quick lunch, Hermione, Lisa, Michael, Padma and Terry all set off to Defence Against The Dark Arts. Entering the classroom, they all took their seats at the beginning of the class. Lisa leaned over to Hermione, a smile on her face "This place either needs to get new desks or have a serious word with one Ronald Weasley" she laughed pointing to the desk and Hermione looked to why what was engraved o the desk "Why oh why did I choose to sit at the front desk when Lockhart was teaching, someone please kill me now. Ronald Weasley"

"I think the guy has some serious issues with desks" Lisa laughed and Hermione turned her nose up, honestly how did such a vandal make prefect. It was then Hermione noticed Umbridge sat silently behind her desk at the front, she silently berated herself for not noticing the presence of a teacher "good morning class" Umbridge spoke climbing to her feet, "good morning professor Umbridge" Hermione spoke but it was drowned out by the mutters of "good morning" from everyone else. To say the lesson was a disappointment was a understatement, they were told no magic was allowed in the classroom - ever. All they did was read from a book.

"She's a terrible teacher!" Terry moaned as they left the classroom, Michael nodded his head in agreement looking back at the classroom with distaste. "What was Dumbledore thinking when he hired her!" Padma said, her voice shrill. Hermione rolled her eyes; she was indeed a terrible teacher, but a teacher none the less. Lisa however seemed to read her mind

"Oh come on Hermione, you can't possibly defend that lesson, I mean no magic!" she exclaimed, as they walked into the entrance hall, they looked at the hour glasses and were thrilled to see Ravenclaw just edging ahead of Sytherin.

"Oh!" Hermione heard Lisa shout and she followed her vision to see Ronald Weasley stop and turn to face them, "what's your issue with desks?" she asked smiling as Ron walked closer, seemingly confused "I've seen your name engraved on every desk I've sat at today, you run out of paper?" she smiled and Ron laughed, stopping in front of them, Hermione couldn't help but notice how deep his blue eyes seemed "Gotta find someway to entertain myself haven't I" he smiled, a lop-sided grin; Hermione thought she saw a little blush appear on Lisa's cheeks. "I'm Lisa by the way, and this is Hermione" Lisa said, pointing them both out, Ron looked at Hermione "yeah I know, you're Viktor Krum's girlfriend right?" he asked, his voice with a hint of admiration. Hermione however sighed "Not really, we only went on one date, but we're just friends" she smiled and Ron seemed a little disappointed "yeah well, tell him I said hi" Ron smiled, Hermione was pretty sure Ron didn't know Viktor but decided to overlook it. Ron turned back to Lisa "so I gotta be somewhere, but I'll see you around" he smiled walking backwards, Lisa waved slightly smiling as Ron disappeared around the corner.

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**A/N - So what you think?, What about Ron and Lisa?, You like the fact Ron still admires Krum?, what about their reaction to Umbridge?, let me know what you think in your ever so appreciated reviews. **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four - A Slip Of The Tongue

A week past and the only thing which Hogwarts students seemed to be talking about was the incident which had happened during the first lesson Gryffindor had with Umbridge, which lead to a massive argument between Professor Umbridge and Harry Potter. Harry claimed that the ministry was covering up the death of Cedric Diggory and the apparent return of You-Know-Who. Ever since they whispers had followed Harry around. Hermione didn't know what to believe about Harry, but she hardly thought the ministry would do such a awful thing, after all it was a innocent boy that we were talking about. Padma brought them all the latest drama from the Gryffindor common room thanks to her sister, however it was obvious all information had to be taken with a pinch of salt, it was obvious that she was exaggerating. Padma had also taken to annoying Lisa with questions as she knew that Lisa and Ronald Weasley had been talking a lot lately, given that he was Harry Potter's best friend he would know more than anyone, however Lisa said that Ron never talked about Harry to her.

Hermione was sat alone in the great hall on a Saturday morning when Ron approached her as she sat at the Ravenclaw table "Hey" he smiled and Hermione looked up, looking seemingly surprised. "Your smart right?" he asked, sitting across from her and she couldn't help but laugh at his question, "well, I suppose that depends on how you define as smart, of course the most accepted definition is book smart, and yes I do count myself as very book smart, I think it's a grave injustice for me to be considered otherwise, as for the other smart, in street smart I like to think I had read enough in theory to be smart enough in the practical" she responded and Ron looked like a animal caught in the headlights of a oncoming car. "Em Okay" Ron said slowly, trying to choose his words carefully "I was just wondering, lets say theoretically someone was having nightmares, the same nightmare every night, and this nightmare was causing this person serious lack of sleep, as in waking him up almost every night, is their anyway that you could stop these dreams?" he asked, and Hermione knew instantly this wasn't just for some research "well, there are plenty of potions which could work, but all are very hard to brew, if you wanted to know more about them, I would ask a teacher I'm sure they'll be more than willing to help" she smiled and Ron laughed "oh yeah, ask Professor Snape for help, I might as well just hand him a noose" he laughed, but Hermione didn't, such disrespect for a teacher, and he was a prefect as well too "thanks anyway" he said quickly swinging his legs round he began to walk away before turning back to her "Lisa's birthday is coming up soon right?, has she mentioned anything she'll like" he asked, and Hermione had to think, she hadn't mentioned much actually so she shook her head "I dunno, maybe a stuffed teddy or something, I know she likes Otters" she smiled but Ron scoffed "She's fifteen not five" he laughed and Hermione blushed and hung her head whispering "there's nothing wrong with Otters".

Ron must have realised that he had upset her, because he walked forward towards her, his mouth opening like a fish as if he couldn't speak, finally he managed to get the words out "oh no, I didn't mean it like that, I mean look at my Sister Ginny, she loved them" the moment the words left his mouth he looked horrified by what he had said, Hermione looked up at him "I mean loves, she loves them, I gotta go" he said, stumbling his words and Hermione got the impression he was furious with himself for his slip of the tongue; the topic of their baby sister was a extremely touchy subject with the Weasley brothers, and everyone knew why, not even the Slytherins brought it up, the memories of the Chamber Of Secrets saga were still too fresh. Hermione felt a little sad as Ron walked away with his shoulders hunched.

"What he want?" Michael's voice said as he appeared behind her, sitting next to her, he watched Ron "oh nothing" Hermione smiled "just wanted to ask about Lisa's birthday" and with those words Michael's face turned to a scowl "oh yeah, those two are quite close now aren't they, dunno what she sees in him, he's always seemed quite rude and hostile to me" he said and Hermione couldn't help but agree, it was well know that the Weasley's had a temper, but Ron's seemed to be a lot worse than his brother's.

"So anyway" he said, becoming much cheerier "me and you are patrolling tonight aren't we?" he smiled and Hermione turned to him "yeah, I'll meet you in the common room at eight" she smiled, and Michael got up to his feet, "accidentally" brushing his hand up her arm, Hermione seemed to be momentarily distracted before returning to her food.

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**A/N - So what you think?, you interested in finding out what happened to Ginny?, what about Michael?. Let me know in your ever so great reviews.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five - Night Patrol

At eight, Hermione was waiting inside the Ravenclaw common doing some quick reading from a book she had picked up from one of the many bookshelves.

"Ready to go?" Michael asked and she smiled and nodded, placing the book back into its correct place. "Lets go then" he smiled and with that they both walked out the common room and into the corridor; their blue prefect badges placed proudly on their chests.

"So you enjoyed the classes so far?" Michael asked before they had even turned the first corner, Hermione smiled, she loved talking about her lessons. "Of course, I mean I've already learned loads, I only wished that our Defence Against The Dark Arts class was more productive but I guess its just Umbridge's teaching style and I'm sure it'll produce adequate results, otherwise Dumbledore wouldn't have hired her right" she smiled looking at Michael, who was looking at her with his eyes seemingly glazed over as if he was caught into some sort of trance. "Michael?" she asked and he seemed to snap out of his revive "oh yeah, I completely agree with you" he smiled, as they continued to walk. Suddenly the sounds of two voices could be heard echoing through the corridors

"Its none of your business" Ron said, seemingly annoyed

"Oh please, I know from Seamus that Harry's been having nightmares, I was just wondering if you knew more, I mean you are his best friend" Pavarti spoke and Ron responded instantly "look, its none of your business what me and Harry talk about , so can you just drop it and leave it at that!" Ron almost shouted, Michael and Hermione exchanged nervous glances, "I think we better put a stop to it, hardly the model behaviour of prefects is it" he smiled and they headed off, as they heard Pavarti say "oh come on, it's just you and me, no one would know, be our little secret" and Michael laughed at the seductive undertones in her voice, Hermione however just wanted to remind them that they were prefects and they had to set a good example; the point that no one was here to see them made no difference

As they turned the corner, they just caught a glimpse of Ron as he moved past them in a rush, Pavarti was stood down the corridor looking after him, seemingly disappointed.

"Hey!" Michael shouted after him, but Ron just raised his hand in offensive gesture which Hermione found appalling behaviour. Hermione and Michael both turned back to Pavarti "All I asked for was a little bit of gossip, and he went mental!" she said her voice much shriller than her sister has ever achieved. "Just forget about him" Michael smiled "he's got some serious anger problems" and Hermione had to feel abit annoyed at this, Michael knew like everyone all the things Ron had gone through, all the terrible things, people have always asked him about the things he had seen it must get annoying to keep on being badgered with questions.

"Look, you go back to your common room, I doubt Weasley's gonna be able to calm himself down to rejoin your patrol, it's a quiet night so we'll be able be able to make sure everything remains calm" Michael smiled and Pavarti flashed him a brilliant smile before turning around and walking off.

"Well, so much for a quiet night" Michael laughed, and Hermione smiled before they continued to move through the corridor

"why do you judge him so much, I mean you hardly know him and Lisa says he's really nice and funny" Hermione said, her nose once again in the air, Michael however snorted "please, he walks around like he owns the place, just because he's best friends with Harry Potter" he scoffed and Hermione just remained silent "plus why do you care so much?" he asked "you hardly know the guy" and Hermione didn't even bother to turn to him "no, but Lisa seems to care about him, and she is my friend so that is why I care"

Michael and Hermione walked onto the second floor, only to see it flooded with water, "oh great, moaning myrtle!" Michael moaned and Hermione couldn't help but agree, she hated having to deal with Myrtle, a extremely annoying ghost who lived in the second floor girls bathroom; and every now and then she would get a extremely annoyed and flood the bathroom. By doing so she had made sure that no girl had ever used the bathroom in almost 49 years; well, all but one girl, and as the thought passed through her mind she thought back to the look of self loathing Ron had on his face when he mentioned her at breakfast, she couldn't imagine how hard it must be for him to walk past this room everyday, knowing what had happened. Entering the toilet, it seemed like all the sinks were overflowing with water, all expect one sink.

"Myrtle!" Michael shouted "care to explain yourself!" and with that the ghost of a teenage girl shot out the far cubicle. "Oh, its you" she moaned, before looking confused "who are you?", Michael and Hermione exchanged a quick glance before Hermione answered "Well I'm Hermione Granger and this is Michael Corner, and we are Ravenclaw Prefects, may I ask why you have flooded the bathroom" she said, giving off her best authority voice, Myrtle seemed not to notice "no reason, just sick and tired of people ignoring me" she said, and Michael sighed loudly "come on Hermione, lets just get out of here, leave Flitch to deal with this" he said, slowly moving towards the door.

"We shouldn't have just left, it was our duty as Hogwarts Prefects to stay and help as much as possible" Hermione complained as they were coming to the end of their patrol, heading back to the common room. "Hermione, seriously, there is nothing we could have done, we'd just have been in the way, no point getting all worked up over it" he smiled, Hermione however was not convinced but before she knew it she found herself walking through the entrance of the common room which Michael just opened. "Meet you here next patrol okay" Michael said, before retreating up the boy's staircase. Hermione thought about going to bed, but thought against it; she didn't feel tired so instead she searched the bookcases until she found a copy of "Hogwarts: A History" - her favourite book. Flipping through she found the chapter on what the book called a myth - the Chamber Of Secrets. She didn't know why, she really hadn't given it much thought since after the second year, but her recent encounter with Ron at the breakfast table had peaked her interest.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six - Happy Birthday

Hermione awoke feeling extremely giddy, she loved her birthdays. Looking to the edge of her bed she saw a gathering of presents at the end of her bed, realising she was alone she jumped out her bed and skipped over to her bed, feeling extremely excited, her birthdays always got her excited, even if she did act a little bit childish when they came along each year. Picking up the first present, she found a large jewellery box which bore a very large necklace which seemed to be made of fake gold sprayed blue, the note gave Padma credit for such a lovely gift. The next gift was a book, a newly revised book of "Hogwarts: A History" from Terry, and she loved it, the book had five completely new chapters that dealt with all the events that happened after the latest editions release. Michael got her some perfume, which while it was lovely, she wasn't really a perfume type of girl. It was then she picked up the next present, a present from Ronald Weasley; a large stuffed giant otter. A large grin broke out over her face as a warm feeling flooded her body. She remembered the talk at the breakfast table, but only for his slip-up with his words, he apparently also remember it, and he had remember when they had talked about Otters. She made a mental note that she would have to thank him as soon as she saw him. Her other presents included a silver locket embedded in blue stones from Lisa, a letter and a stack of books from her parents, which of course came with mandatory dental products. Finally she got about ten cards from friends and family; she couldn't help but feel extremely loved.

Hermione wore her new Locket above her robes and made her way to breakfast, and despite the overcast weather, she felt like it was a bright sunny day. She entered the great hall to find it almost full and quickly made her way down the Ravenclaw table, her eyes quickly scanned the Gryffindor table to find Ronald talking to Harry, only this time the two seemed to be joined by Neville, even more rare was that the two seemed to have a generally fun time. As soon as she was spotted, her group of friends burst out into singing "Happy Birthday" too her, and sang so loud that they caught the attention off Fred and George Weasley, who joined in, shouting the words more than singing.

"Hey, how was the presents?" Padma asked looking disappointed that she wasn't wearing the gold/blue necklace.

"They were great, thanks for them all, really brightened up my morning" Hermione smiled as she sat down, the convosation was a usual one for the Sunday morning; had they done all assigned homework for the week ahead, Hermione of course had, she always made sure her homework was complete the night she received it of her tutors.

"I'm gonna go talk with Ron" Lisa smiled and Hermione felt a ping of annoyance, she had wanted to give her thanks to Ron personally, but she got the feeling that Lisa wouldn't leave his side for awhile now. She watched as Lisa walked over, and was seemingly also familiar with both Harry and Neville. Taking her seat next to Ron as if she belonged there; Hermione then shook her head and decided to think about something else.

It was roughly ten minutes later that Lisa returned to the table, Hermione looked up to see the three Gryffindor boys leaving the table, and she decided now would be a good time to talk to him, so she climbed her feet said bye to her friends and walked after them

"Ronald" she said politely once she was close enough and all three boys turned around "I was wondering if I could talk to you?" and with that she thought she saw Neville and Harry exchange glances before walking ahead, leaving the two alone

"I just wanted to say thank you" Hermione smiled, though her voice seemed very formal "for the birthday present" and with those words Ron's ears turned red "oh, don't worry about it, Its just like I remembered what you said at breakfast that day, so I thought, I'd get you one for your birthday" he smiled, and Hermione smiled at him, though once again abit too formal; like a politician. "But a teddy that big, must have cost quite a bit, you really shouldn't have" and with that Ron's face seemed blush deep, but it wasn't from embarrassment "Yeah, well you know, we got quite a bit off money after what happened to, well I guess I don't need to tell you, but yeah, don't worry moneys on a concern" he said, and seemed to freeze for a slight moment "Happy Birthday Granger" he smiled, but she could tell it was a hollow smile and turned to walk out the door.

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**A/N - So what you think?, you like Ron's gift?. I promise you will learn more about what happened to Ginny soon. Also some more about what Ron and Harry's first four years of adventures were like without Hermione's help. What you think about some Ron POV chapters?. Let me know in your ever so appreciated reviews. **

**Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven – The Illogical Mind

Hermione was sat in the common room relaxing after what had been a very enjoyable birthday, she was currently reading a book she had picked up from one of the many bookcases that the room processed. She was sat by herself and waiting for Lisa to return to the common room, despite the fact it was out of hours and out of bounds Lisa had still refuses to obey the rules and left to meet up with Ronald Weasley. Hermione however found this to be unacceptable behaviour, didn't she realise if they were caught Lisa would seriously damage Ravenclaw's chance of winning the house cup, and as for Ronald, he was actually a prefect and still he refused to listen to the rules, he hardly gave the best example to the first years. Hermione couldn't help but wonder how Ronald Weasley ever became a prefect with his well known past of rule breaking. As this thought passed through her mid however she heard the door open and in came Lisa, and Hermione glanced once at her and suddenly became worried – Lisa was crying and appeared to be very upset.

"Lisa!" Hermione exclaimed as she jumped up, making sure the book didn't get damaged in it's fall, Lisa threw herself down on a seat in the corner and Hermione sat across from her, Lisa took one look at her then exploded into speech "I don't know what happened!" she said "everything was going fine, and then all of sudden he starts being really mean to me, saying awful things which he knew would hurt me, yet he said them anyway!" she said, and Hermione put her logical mind into work, she remembered her previous two encounters with Ron, how his attitude would change in a instant "he knew what he was doing though, I could tell that he was trying to hurt me and I can't understand why he would do that, I thought he liked me" she finshed before throwing herself backwards into the awaiting backrest, her eyes were now red and puffy.

Hermione's brain was in overdrive trying to find a logical explanation for Ronald's actions, hopefully one which could soothe her friend however no matter how hard she tried she couldn't find anything, and this annoyed her more than anything, how can it not have a logical explanation?. The more she thought about it the more the mindset of Ronald Weasley began to interest her however the little voice in her head was telling her to leave it alone and that some things she was not meant to understand, however the one thing many people didn't realise about Hermione Granger was that no matter how smart she was, she would never listen to the voice of reason when it didn't agree with her.

The next morning came and with it came a new learning week, Hermione was up early smartly dressed (apart from her out of control bushy hair), her stationary equipment was all organised and placed neatly in her back with her books, and with over a hour to spare till class started she headed down to the great hall alone. The great hall was surprisingly full to the extent that for the first time she could remember she was one of the last people to sit at their respective table. Her eyes quickly glanced over to the Gryffindor table where it appeared Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter were having a argument with Slythrin Draco Malfoy, she couldn't help but feel annoyed, two prefects arguing in front of everyone – what kind of example were they setting!.

"Hermione!" she heard Padma shout and she quickly went and sat next to her and Terry.

"Hey Hermy" Terry smiled, once again refusing to give up that abysmal nickname he had chosen for her, Hermione just smiled at him, feeling slightly disappointed that she was sat with her back to the Gryffindor table. "So Umbridge again today" Terry groaned and Hermione felt his sprits flicker, but then reminded herself that Professor Umbridge was a Hogwarts teacher and therefore be respected like one "and Snape!" Padma exclaimed and Hermione didn't mind having Snape, he never really bothered her in class, though he could be a bit too harsh. As the two talked, Hermione quickly turned around to catch Ronald walking from the room and disappearing into the corridors, she looked over to his table to see Harry collecting his things.

"I'll see you in class" she smiled as she got to her feet and keeping her eye on Harry the two students walked at the same pace towards the entrance hall.

"Excuse me" Hermione smiled once they were alone in the entrance hall, Harry stopped and turned to her, smiling politely and suddenly Hermione remembered she had no idea how to phrase her question "I just wanted to ask, if you knew why Ron is treating Lisa so bad?" she asked and Harry seemed confused by the question so Hermione processed to tell him what had happened the previous night and a look of understanding appeared on Harry's face – it was clear he understood completely his friend's actions. "Look I'm sorry about your friend, but i can't really say anything about it" he smiled, but he obviously didn't know how persistent Hermione could be. "but she's really upset, and she thinks it's her fault and that's just not fair when its obviously you're friends fault" she spoke and Harry suddenly began to look defensive "Ron just has his demons, you can hardly hold that against him can you" he spoke and Hermione felt a surge of guilt for how she had spoken "Ron just won't let himself be happy after what happened with.." he stopped suddenly but Hermione knew exactly what the next word was going to be "with Ginny" she spoke finishing the sentence. Harry looked at her for a second, before checking they were alone, he took on step forward and spoke "How much do you know about what happened with Ginny" he asked

"Just what I've heard or read in books, why?" she responded and Harry seemed to take a debate to himself for a moment before speaking "when me and Ron were in second year........"

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**A/N: I know nothing much happens in this chapter, but its mainly a set-up for the next chapter which will hold many answers on what happened w ith Ginny. Hope you all had a good Christmas and hope you all have a Happy New Year, and I'll see you all in 2010.**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight – The Ginny Weasley Incident

"When me and Ron were in second year" Harry spoke before stopping, he seemed to have the words on the tip of his tongue, finally he spoke once more "oh you already know most the story anyway, about the Chamber Of Secrets and Lockhart, and that Ginny was taken into the chamber and she never came out the same, that something happened down there, something which changed her forever" and Hermione could feel her blood run cold, she remembered the day the school were told what had happened, and she remembered the look on every face sat at the Gryffindor table "even now" Harry spoke "She's in St Mungo's, she's always in St Mungo's, because she'll never get better, and more worse is that she'll never get worse either, not until the day she dies will she finally be able to have peace." He spoke, and Hermione couldn't help but think how mature Harry seemed to be, and it wasn't a good thing either because behind his green eyes she could clearly see a tired soul, and she thought about all the times people admired him and Ron for their adventures but now, she couldn't help but pity them.

"I don't even know why I'm telling you this" he laughed "but i think its time i did, because I've tried to help him, but i don't think he'll ever be free of his guilt"

"What guilt?, he didn't do anything, it wasn't his fault" Hermione rushed the words out of her mouth before she knew what she was doing, Harry however gave a sad smile "do you know what the Dementor's Kiss is?, actually stupid question you're a Ravenclaw of course you do" and once again he gave a small forced chuckle "well imagine that, but the Dementor was interrupted, impossible i know but the damage was done, but some of a soul, just the smallest amount was left inside the body, just lingering there, and it's not enough for the person, but they cling onto it like its the most precious thing in the world, which it is. And most the time that person, has basically been destroyed, and just the shell left, and then sometimes, once a month or a year or even a week, for a short amount of time she'll be almost normal and she'll smile and laugh, and then she'll slip again and never remember the laughter, her mind constantly replaying what happened in the Chamber over and over"

Hermione was sure she was crying, and Harry himself to be pained, she had no idea where his speech had come from, but it seemed it was something Harry had needed to get of his chest, something which once he had started he couldn't stop himself from speaking, finally unburdening himself with the knowledge, Hermione's heart went out to Ron and the rest of the Weasley, she was a only child but if she had the choice she would love to have a baby sister, but something still troubled her, horrific as it may be she couldn't understand how this troubled Ron more than the others, maybe it was the fact he had been down in the Chamber and found her, seen the scene where she had her last knowing thoughts. "He blames himself" Harry spoke seemingly reading her mind "he thinks he should have protected her, his baby sister and all that, he was very protective of her, always has been"

"yeah, but I've heard all of them are, and Ron did more than them didn't he, so how could he think he failed her?" she asked, she knew she was being nosey but the mind of Ron was fascinating her more and more every second.

"Because he feels he could have stopped it" he spoke and for the first time Harry's voice cracked with pain, he blinked back tears "like I said I don't even know why I'm telling you this, but i can't deal with this alone anymore, I've tried, god knows I've tried to help him, the day Ginny was taken, me and Ron were having breakfast, and she came to us, she looked worried and scared, and wanted to talk to Ron, but we said we were busy and then Ron's brother came along, distracted us and she walked off, and then she was gone" he spoke, and Hermione's brain was in overdrive with the new information and suddenly everything made sense to her "Despite all the things we have seen, all the things we've done, i know that the thing Ron regrets most was turning his back on his sister when she needed him the most, and everyday he tortures himself for it, he hates himself for being so selfish, the reason he ruined it with your friend, was because he doesn't let himself be happy because in his mind he doesn't deserve to be, not after what he did." He spoke as he bowed his head, a single tear escaped his eye , Hermione once described the two boys as "Children Of War" with the physical scars to show from their victorious battles, but now she realised how wrong she had been, had they ever once been victorious? Ginny Weasley, Cedric Diggory and the other casualties, even Harry's face was scarred, he bore one from the infamous attack when he was a child, and the more recent one which he got from facing a Dragon last year in the Tri-Wizard contest. A long claw mark disfigured the left side of his face.

"Look, Hermione right, you can't tell Ron i told you this, but i know everyone says your smart, and if you can think off anyway to help, then please come find me okay" Harry smiled before turning away leaving Hermione stood alone in the entrance hall, the horrifying information running through her head.

**A/N: So what you think about Ginny's fate?, and Harry's attitude? With Hermione not their the adventures hardly went to plan and it's changed a lot of things and mostly not for the better. Let me know in your lovely reviews. P.S Hope you all had a great New Years and hopefully you'll all have a great 2010. **


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine – Seeds Of The Plan

After she had given thought to her talk with Harry, Hermione decided the best thing to do was talk to Ron, she always felt she was good at helping people with their problems and was always happy to do so, despite some people claiming she was just being nosey. After checking the places where she felt he was most likely to be, places such as The Library. She found him however eating alone in the Great Hall directly where she started from, checking her watch she knew that she had twenty minutes till class, which meant she had ten minutes get to the classroom in order to keep her good reputation with the teachers. She didn't know what she was going to say exactly but she did have a very rough plan, she felt it would be better to have some plan than no at all. She walked down the space between the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor table, before taking her seat opposite Ronald. It took him at least two seconds to actually realise she had sat across from him, a shy smile on her face as he looked up

"Eh, Hi" he said, sounding uncertain of a lot of things, or really uncertain of a single thing, it was hard to tell.

"Hi" Hermione smiled back, and now she realised she had absolutely no idea how to start, and realised how stupid she must look at the moment, as the confusion built up on Ron's face "can I help you with something?" he said, sounding confused and curious, Hermione was getting annoyed with herself for not being able to think of a logical answer to the question, her brain never failed to find logic. "No, don't want anything" she stuttered, this should be easy, according to all the books she had read social interactions where about confident and she was feeling confident when she arrived at the table and not much had changed "just wanted to talk that's all" she continued "so, how are you?" she finished lamely, she couldn't help but bow her head slightly and blush, she felt like a fool.

"well" Ron said, stammering slightly due to the confusion of the whole situation he had suddenly found himself in "I'm good, classes are alight i guess, still boring as ever" he added and Hermione couldn't help but feel annoyed at his attitude given he was a perfect "what's with the face?" Ron asked, apparently her distaste to his words had shown through

"Nothing" Hermione spoke "Its just as a fellow Prefect, don't you think that you should show respect to the teacher's of this establishment and their teaching methods" she spoke and Ron's eyebrows shot up into his fringe, he seemed to be trying hard not to smile but before long he was laughing "oh come on, you can't tell me that you approve of teachers like Trelawney and Umbridge" he laughed and Hermione was only annoyed further "their teaching style my be a little strange.."

"Or in Umbridge's case none-excitant" Ron interrupted, still laughing

"Just because it seems like we haven't seemed to learn anything, doesn't mean we actually haven't" Hermione shot back but the doubt in her voice was clear and Ronald seemed to pick up on it "oh come on, even you must realise defending her is a losing battle, maybe you haven't noticed but even the teachers can't stand her" he laughed and together they looked up at the teacher's table, and Umbridge sat drinking her tea with some forced dignity while the teachers around her carried on with their own business, seemingly ignoring her. Hermione looked sideways at Ron who was looking at her with a amused and smug look on his face, it was clear he had won this debate.

"Okay" Hermione exclaimed, seemingly more annoyed than ever at losing "maybe it would better if somebody else taught us, anybody else in fact but she is still a Hogwarts teacher and that means we have to respect – are you even listening to me!" Hermione finished noticing Ron had seemingly slipped his attention away from her halfway through her sentence, he appeared to have suffered a sudden epiphany of some sorts

"Ronald!" Hermione exclaimed and he snapped out his trance and looked at her, seemingly ecstatic

"What?" she asked feeling slightly unnerved, but Ron's grin grew larger "you're a genius, honestly Granger you are" he laughed, and with that he jumped to his feet "look i got to go" he smiled "actually, isn't it lesson soon, Care For Magical Creature's and all that" he laughed "see you around" he laughed and with that he set off, leaving Hermione extremely confused about his sudden behaviour and what she could have possibly have said in order to merit such a joyous response from him, but she then realised he was indeed correct and that she had to get to lesson, which just happened to be the lesson they were just talking about, Defence Against The Dark Arts. Though she would never admit it to anyone, due to it being total rude to spread hurtful gossip about anyone, let alone a teacher but she did find that Umbridge wasn't teaching them much,, and of course this was a major concern that she would have to take to the Headmaster if it didn't change, with the O.W.L.S approaching she couldn't afford for her education to be hindered, and she didn't see any other way to help the matter, but then of course, she had no clue about the idea she had just given Ronald Weasley.

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**A/N –So What you think?. Not a long chapter I know, but as you can see this sets the roots for the DA storyline. What you think about the Hermione / Ron encounter which was a bit more than there's been so far, the two will be seeing a lot more of each other in further chapters. Next Chapter we enter the POV of Ron, should be up within the week, really swamped at the moment. **


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten - A Rush Of Anger

The rain was to put it bluntly - a bloody nuisance thought Ronald Weasley as he walked across the wet grass towards the small cabin on the grounds. His mind was still repeating the words Hermione Granger had spoken to him, the idea she had given him, he knew it was a crazy idea yet it was exactly what him and Harry needed, and he more than anyone knew that sometimes you had to take risks. As he approached the cabin he knew that he was late, it seemed he was the last one to arrive and this meant he was quite late as nobody tired to hard to make it to this class. The problem was people had trouble respecting Hagird as a teacher, ever since third year when his pet Hippogriff had unfortunately attacked yet failed to kill Draco Malfoy and then been killed in punishment for his "crime" which Ron thought was failing to kill Malfoy, Hagird had failed to regain himself after that and only taught either really dull and boring creatures or interesting creatures out of dull and boring books.

"Where've you been?" Harry asked as he reached the cabin, he noticed the class was in full swing, and Ron groaned, it was time for another course off flobberworms. Ron wouldn't complain in Hagird burst out his cabin door telling them they had to floss a full grown Norbert the Dragon who had somehow magically appeared just before class.

"Tell you later" Ron replied getting his book from his bag "also, just a idea how to deal with Umbridge" he smiled and Harry's face lit up "you want to get dobby to poison her?" he laughed, and Ron couldn't help but laugh too, but then they realised they best be quiet just in-case Dobby overheard them and actually poisoned Umbridge.

They sat away up against the cabin away from the majority of the group and once again in this lesson they pretended to read. "I was talking to Granger" Ron spoke "and she said something about teaching ourselves to fight" he smiled, and Harry's eyes lighted up slightly "so I thought, no one knows better than to fight than us, and lets face it with You-Know-Who on the loose, everyone in this school is gonna have to learn sooner or later, and it best be sooner" and with those words Harry's spark disappeared and he looked at Ron like he had recently gone mental

"You want to teach everyone how to fight" Harry laughed, but not a humours laugh, it had some malice inside it "they already think I'm a insane mental case remember, if I tell them I want to teach them how to fight a war, I'm sure that'll go down fantastic" he laughed sarcastically

"but - "

"No but's Ron, I thought you were talking about you and me training, you know getting ready, and that I was fine with, plus these people don't believe me remember"

"Some do" Ron shot back "what about people like Neville?, do you think if Death Eater's show up Neville's going to walk away, bollocks he is, but lets face it he can't duel to save his life" and he could tell he had given Harry something to think about, In his head he congratulated himself for getting into Harry's stubborn head, it was quite a accomplishment

"I'm not teaching everyone" Harry said flatly, and the celebrations ceased to exist.

"Fine" Ron gave in "just you me and Neville" Ron said and Harry looked confused but seemed to understand, out of everyone in the school, Neville Longbottem was the only one who always stuck by them, and now only just now had they realised that they had never thanked him for that or given him any recognition to him.

"Gather round everyone!" Hagrid's booming voice rang out, Harry and Ron packed up and walked to the front of his house, as they did they found themselves to the person that Ron hated more than anyone, more than Voldemort, it was Draco Malfoy.

"Oh look" Malfoy sneered "It's the Weasel, didn't think you had made it, I was under the impression you had found a penny down a drain and got your hand stuck, that's what I heard anyway" he laughed and the gang of Slytherins behind him burst out into laughter as Ron's entire face went red with anger, he felt his fist's shaking and he could feel the anger flowing through him, but he knew better than to let it take over, he knew that nothing good could come from it, he had to control himself, if he hit Draco then his father would get involved, and if Ron saw him he would most likely hit him too, and then he would be in trouble.

"So" Hagrid's voice rang out and Ron turned to face him, trying to calm himself by thinking happy thoughts, unfortunately at the moments "happy thoughts" consisted of Draco being force fed a stick of dynamite, realising he had lost track he turned his attention back to Hagird "okay, so I hope you all learned a lot about Flobberworms from your books today, class dismissed" Hagrid spoke and the class mumbled quietly as they turned to leave, Harry and Ron walked forward to tell Hagird how his lesson had been "informative and exciting" when they passed Malfoy and his gang catching wind off what he was saying

"That's it" Malfoy sneered "the minute we get back I'm writing to father to get this stupid oaf fired, call that a lesson" he spat and the others agreed, Ron didn't trust himself to stop so he carried on walking, Harry however did stop and span on the spot "why don't you just shut up Malfoy" he said, his voice shaking with anger. Trying to keep himself from Malfoy, Ron stood quite away from his friend, but close enough to be at hand should Harry need him.

"Or what Potter?, you gonna tell your mummy I've been saying naughty things, oh wait, you can't can you, because she's dead!" Draco laughed loudly and Harry pulled out his wand as Draco pulled out his, Ron saw Crabbe and Goyle draw their's, but before either could get it free from their pockets, Ron had positioned himself beside them with his wand pointed at both of them.

"I'm warning you Malfoy, you're Death Eater Daddy doesn't scare me" Harry snarled, and Draco's eyes flashed with fury at Harry's words, Ron could see both owners tighten the grips of their wands.

"You know what Potter, you two aren't worth it, you with your rotting parents and Weasel over their with his retarded sister, I really - "

Draco didn't get to finish his sentence as Ron smashed into him shoulder first, both wands flying through the air the two teenagers landed hard onto the floor, Harry would off found it amusing to see Ron seemingly straddling Malfoy, had Ron not completed the image by repeatedly punching a defenceless Draco in the face. Ron was screaming, he had no idea what but he just wanted Draco to pay, out the corner of his eye he saw two flashes of red but they did not register with him. A strong pair of arms grabbed him around the waist and pulled him up "Ron!, calm down!" Harry's voice shouted as he pulled him away from a bleeding Draco, but how could he calm down, after what Draco had said, he deserved the pain he was in, in fact it wasn't enough.

"Ron you need to calm down!" Harry pleased as he pulled him away from the three boys who lay on the floor, it appeared that the two flashes of red was Harry stunning both Goyle and Crabbe, and like that the situation shot over Ron in a instant and he realised what he had done, he had just made things a thousands times worse for him and Harry. Harry thrust his bag into his hands and threw his own over his shoulder, picking up Ron's wand he began to run away from the scene and Ron quickly followed, knowing that Hagird was find them soon, and that then if anyone ever found out Harry was involved the whispers would increase and Umbridge would have a reason to expel them from school. Ron also couldn't help but think what Draco's house were gonna think about this, he knew they would be some sort of payback and whatever it was would be his fault, but despite all this, he couldn't help but think, that no matter what they did, no matter what trouble was caused because of his few seconds of anger, those seconds were priceless and worth everything that was to come.

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**A/N - So what you think?, What you think about Ron's POV?. What about Ron's actions towards Draco?. Let me know in your lovely reviews.**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven - Interrupted

It was a disgrace, a Hogwarts Prefect had been brutally attacked inside the school grounds and no-one had any idea who was responsible - yet. She knew the teacher's would not stand for it, she had never seen Professor Snape so furious and the entire school knew that it was only a matter of time before the culprit was caught. Mostly because Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, the two witnesses to the horrific attack on Draco Malfoy would be awake soon after they were suspected off being stunned; and when they woke up, they would surely tell the teacher's who had attacked their friend and Hermione hoped the attacker would be correctly punished, which she felt they should be expelled.

Everyone in the school was talking about the incident, ever since Hagrid had raised the alarm about what had happened, and at dinner that night, it was the only subject of convosation

"It's got to be a Gryffindor" Michael stated and a mummer of agreements rang out "I mean, everyone knows the two houses hate each other"

"But Draco acts like he's untouchable, who'll dare do that to him?" Lisa asked, and everyone suddenly formed a name in mind

"Ron Weasley" Michael said, throwing his arms in the air in apparent triumph, Hermione couldn't't help but feel slightly annoyed "oh honestly, that's nothing but mindless accusations which could cause a lot of problems, you are a prefect Michael, act like one" she huffed before turning away with her nose slightly in the air.

"Oh come on Hermy" Terry laughed "Weasley and Malfoy hated each other, he's bound to be prime suspect in this"

"Plus!" Michael shouted, as if hit by a sudden epiphany "He hangs around with Potter, who's been shouting around like a mad man that Malfoy's dad is a death eater, Malfoy confronts him, and Potter's lapdog attacks" and with that Hermione and Lisa both shot him a sharp unyielding look at the words labdog.

"It doesn't matter anyway, because soon his friend's will be awake and they'll be able to tell us everything" Padma spoke as if it settled the manner and that what Hermione couldn't understand, it was only a simple spell to awaken a stunned person, so why was Dumbledore waiting.

"Hermione!" Michael said loudly, rudely breaking her out her train of thought "what time we meeting in common room tonight to patrol the corridors?" he asked and Hermione couldn't help but feel annoyed, every week they met at the same time in the same place, and yet every time he asked her "Eight in the common room entrance" Hermione answered without really think about it, she didn't know what was wrong with her lately but she had been having trouble keeping focused on things she should be focused upon. She watched as Michael and Terry stood up and left, as they did Lisa and Padma moved quickly closer to Hermione as if they were about to attack her

"Michael likes you" Padma blurted out loudly and Hermione felt herself blush uncomfortably "what?" Hermione stammered feeling a sense of dread

"he does, this morning he was asking us if you were dating Viktor?" Lisa smiled, apparently this was a good thing but she couldn't see how, Michael was a good friend but that's all he was too her and she didn't want that to change because of feelings he apparently had and she didn't.

"I think he's going to ask you out on a date tonight" Padma said, and her and Lisa seemed to be talking to themselves more than Hermione herself, though the subject was firmly cemented on Hermione and Michael.

That night, Hermione was stood waiting nervously in the common room, she really hoped that the girls were wrong about Michael, her hopes weren't raised however when she saw Michael appear from the boy's staircase. His hair was straight and had obviously been styled to what he thought was perfection, his robes were neat and while Hermione did think he looked extremely handsome, she really wished he didn't go to so much effort for her.

"Ready to go" he smiled as he approached her and she gave a small uncertain smile back, as they left the common room together and Hermione couldn't help but wish they weren't alone, she wasn't very good when it came to boys, in fact she was quiet dreadful. For the first twenty minutes they talked about random subjects, through he would always smile or laugh when he got the chance, Hermione couldn't help but think he was as nervous as she was.

"So Hermione" he spoke as they turned onto another empty corridor "you got anything planned for the upcoming Hogsmeade trip?" he asked and Hermione tried desperately to think off something but eventually just shook her head and answered "no" and with that Michael smiled bright ly

"Because I was thinking that maybe -" Michael never finished his sentence because at that moment a loud crash came from ahead of them, and they both realised where it was coming from; the hospital wing. Michael quickly drew his wand and stepped in front of Hermione protectively as they moved forward quickly, they knew the hospital wing wasn't empty but all three occupants where in no state to make loud crashes. They turned the corner and saw iit - the hospital wing door was open.

"Someone's in there" Michael whispered and Hermione heard it too, a set of whispers, she couldn't make out what they were saying but they were vaguely familiar to her.

"You ready?" Michael asked and Hermione felt a surge of responsibility in her, this is why she became a prefect to uphold the law, at least two people were out of bounds and breaking curfew but then a horrible idea hit her, what they were teachers and she and Michael actually aimed their wands at them, but then she remembered that they would likely be extremely impressed their bravery and dedication to the safety of the school. Michael took one last look back and gave her a nod before they rushed into the room - it was empty.

Everything was as it should be, the three injured students asleep in bed and nothing else. Michael walked forward, seemingly confused and Hermione was struggling to find the logic, she had heard whispering, the loud crash and yet no one was hear, it didn't make sense. Michael checked the only remaining door but found it locked, Hermione suddenly felt someone brush past her, but no-one was their and that's when she saw it, on the floor next to Vincent's bed, a piece of fabric, seemingly having been ripped off, she bent down to get a closer look and it was familiar to her, it was a sleeve of a Hogwarts robe, one which was black and red, belonging to a Gryffindor and on the sleeve were several hairs as if someone had ran it through the hair of a red haired person, and Hermione knew that left her with three options, three brothers, but deep down she knew which one the sleeve belonged too, and which one had been lurking in the hospital wing.

**A/N - Not the best or most interesting chapter I know, but it was a important one.. So let me know what you think in your reviews, What do you think about Michael and Hermione? And most important what do you think about Hermione now having evidence incriminating Ron?.**

**COMING SOON - DREAMLAND, a new AU fic which should have its first chapter up by the end of the month**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve - Confrontation

It was the morning and Hermione was walking down the corridor, she had just got out of bed and was heading to breakfast. The events of last night were still running through her head, finding evidence incriminating a fellow Prefect in the attack on another Prefect was something was not be taken lightly but she had done her duty and handed it into the person she felt best to handle such a delicate situation, the Gryffindor Head of House Professor McGonagall. She didn't know what had happened to Ronald Weasley, but she was sure that he deserved to be expelled if he was indeed guilty of the attack on the three Slytherins.

"Granger!" a familiar voice shouted from behind her and she turned and to her surprise saw the very person she had just been thinking off, Ron Weasley was walking towards her, he looked furious.

"Why have I just been dragged into McGonagall's office about some so called evidence about me attacking the ferret?" he said, stopping before her and suddenly she didn't feel so confident, she was never good under pressure but before she knew it she felt some courage flowing from somewhere inside her "If McGonagall wanted to talk to you about something, I hardly see what that has to do with me" she stated, sticking her nose in the air despite the obvious lie she had told she still thought it was a good and valid point

"She mentioned a Prefect, and you and Corner were on patrol last night, and I'm guessing it wasn't him as he'll be too busy brushing his hair" he spat, she was shocked by the anger in his voice, she couldn't help but feel like it was extremely rude of him, he had absolutely no proof and was jumping to conclusions.

"Look, I don't know what you are accused of doing, but I'm sure if you're innocent then you'll have nothing to worry about" she said firmly, the justice system was in perfect order, so she knew she was right, Ron however laughed loudly "you do realise you're talking to the best friend of Sirius Black's godson, remember him, Sirius Black wrongly imprisoned for thirteen years" and Hermione couldn't think off anything to say to that, she noticed however that Ron's ears were becoming alarmingly red, as if someone had set fire inside his head.

"If you will excuse me, I have to go get something to eat otherwise I won't be able to function to my full ability in my lessons" she said, and she caught a glimpse of Ron's face as she turned around, it looked as if someone had asked him to divide by zero and he was seriously trying to grasp the context.

"Oh no you don't" Ron called after her, overtaking her he turned around and started walking backwards, so no matter how fast she walked he was always in front of her and facing her, this was now beyond rude, has this boy no manners!

"You do realise by giving that sleeve to McGonagall you almost got me expelled!" he said and Hermione stopping suddenly, processing what Ron had just said and he seemed to realise his mistake - how did he know it was a sleeve

"How did you - "

"She told me, when she called me in" he rushed out quickly before she could finish her question, interrupting her, did this boy know anything about being a gentleman.

"No she didn't. she swore she wouldn't" Hermione admitted stiffly and Ron's face grew a shade redder, which was a shame because it had been returning to normal colour "so you did go to McGonagall" he exclaimed in triumph but also scandalised, as if telling a teacher of rule breaking was the most terrible thing ever, then she remembered his brother's and wasn't surprised, they were always in trouble and always let of lightly.

"You were out of bounds and breaking curfew!, as a Prefect it was my duty to inform the nearest authority figure, also the evidence implicated you in the attack, how could I turn my back on that. Would you?" she finished and before she could even take a breath Ron responded "Of course not, if someone attacked Malfoy and I knew, but I would give them a bloody medal not tell on them and almost get them expelled"

"Well you're not expelled are you, and Draco will be awake soon and he'll be able to tell us who it was that attacked him, so you have nothing to worry about, un less of course you are responsible then you deserve everything you get and of course I want a full apology for shouting at me in the corridor for no good reason!" Hermione ranted, her voice becoming high, fast and shrill.

"There already awake, he doesn't remember anything, neither do his two idiots of friends" he smiled, their was something wrong with his smile though, something prideful, like inside he was happy with himself, and it hit Hermione then how convenient it was for him for Draco and his friends to suddenly forget everything and then the pieces fell together in her logical mind, he knew it was a sleeve, he knew she had the sleeve, he knew Michael had been with her, and now the only witnesses to the attack were unable to tell anyone because they couldn't remember, and then she remembered the sense of a unknown person brushing past her, but no one had been their, but now she had worked it out, someone had been in that room with them, the person who had made banging and crashing when he caught his sleeve. The same person who was now stood in front of her

"You were there" it was more of a statement than a question, and Ron seemed to have no answer, his mouth opened and closed like a goldfish trying to speak, he blushed once more but this time not from anger "I don't know what your talking about" a voice unlike his own spoke and that was the proof that she needed to prove her point. She whipped around once more, pushing past Ron who this time made no attempt to follow her and as she was about to turn the corner when a sudden thought hit her and she turned back to him

"Why did Dumbledore wait?, he could have restored their memory anytime he wanted, but he waited and because he did, someone -" she used the word with a disapproving tone "- was able to make sure they couldn't answer no questions, so why did he wait?" and she waited for a answer, she and Ron stood far apart in the corridor did nothing but stare at each other, his face unreadable, but their was something in his eyes, something she couldn't quite place and before she knew it he gave a little chuckle and flashed her a lop-sided grin which made her face go slightly hotter and then spoke "what you talking about Granger?" he laughed and Hermione blinked in shock, and with that Ron smiled once more and turned away, was he really going to forget the scene ever happened, well she wasn't, she now knew something was going on with Ronald Weasley, and no one ever beat Hermione Granger at anything and she would be dammed if he was the first.

**A/N - So what you think?, I realised this story had too little Ron/Hermione scenes so this chapter is basically just one long one. And yes, Ron/Hermione usually does equal argument doesn't it, though without the friendship behind it this time. So what you think about Ron's attitude throughout especially the end? And what about Hermione's now growing curiosity into the life of Ronald Weasley? Let me know in your brilliant reviews.**

**COMING FEBUARY 1ST**** 2010 - DREAMLAND - The beginning of a new large scale AU story, more details coming soon. **


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen - Payback

Ron was feeling uneasy, he had given her a bone to follow, once again he had done something without thinking, he should probably stop doing that he thought to himself and made a mental note that thinking was good. To add to his unease, Ron had only just made breakfast and with a almost empty stomach made his way to potions. He needed his strengths, his first quiddich practice was today and he wanted to be good, his annoying brother's were already on his case about it, but when wasn't they always he thought to himself.

"Ron" a familiar voice called out and he turned to find Neville walking towards him, seemingly out of breath. Ron had always liked Neville, sure he had been abit annoying in the first year, but then Ron was a complete ignorant idiot so he couldn't speak, but Neville had been there like no one else after what had happened in second year - Ron stopped himself, he did not think about that in the day, only on certain days or when he was alone.

"Have you done the essay for Snape?!

"We had a essay for Snape?" Ron asked quickly and then it came back to him, he had completely forgotten - this surely was his final hour.

"Dude!" Neville exclaimed "he's gonna go nuts, I mean he already thinks you attacked his seeker" and with that Ron's arm shot out, blocking his friend's path as he rounded on him ."what do you mean Snape thinks I attacked Malfoy?"

"Everyone thinks so, there's a rumour going around that McGonagall dragged you into her office for questioning" he spoke and Ron's blood ran cold, Granger really had dropped him in it more than he thought, if the whole school suspected something he knew they wouldn't wait for proof, and he was about to walk into a room full of Malfoy's Slythrin friends. He remembered thinking how attacking Malfoy would be worth any punishment, but now wasn't so sure. Then he remember he had punched Malfoy and he felt it was worth it again.

"So did you?" Neville asked, clearly curious

Ron debated for a second before answering "yeah I did, I totally lost control but he poked fun at Ginny" and with those words Neville seemed to understand, this is what Ron loved most about Neville, he was loyal and he was the only person out of his family that he could talk too, Ron and Neville had bonded as friends over visits to St Mungo's and now were closer than ever.

Entering the room felt like he watching the green mile, which apparently was some sort of film thing, Harry had told him about it, when he first moved in with Sirius and went through his "I'm going to catch up on all the muggle things I've missed out on in the last 13 years" phrase which lasted around three months.

"Where you been?" Harry hissed as they approach him "have you heard the rumours that's going around, I was getting worried"

"Yeah I heard" Ron replied as he sat down next to him, only then noticing he was sat at the edge of his table, across from him the Slythrin table looked across at him, venom in their eyes.

"You wanna change seats?" Harry asked and Ron just smiled, classic Harry, trying to take the bullet, which was something else that Harry described, apparently it was a small metal tablet thing which flew out of barrels and killed people, Ron hadn't looked a barrel of wine in some time.

"Okay class" Snape snarled, and Ron cringed slightly, this wasn't going to be pleasant.

"Since some of you are progressing more than others in this classroom" he shot a dirty look at the Gryffindor "one side of the classroom is going to produce the Shrinking Solution, while the other half will be producing the Wolfsbane Potion" and Ron and everyone next to him groaned, the Wolfsbane was by far the more difficult and they knew which side of the room was going to have to make it.

Ron, Harry, Neville all stood around their table, beside them the other Gryiffindors were complaining loudly and Ron couldn't blame them, Snape had always shown favour to his house, but this was beyond anything yet, and he was surpassed to be on his side, with friends like Snape Ron couldn't help feel doomed. Trust Snape to suck the happiness out off everything, guy was worse than a bloody dementor, wish he would meet one sometime soon, Ron shivered slightly as the thought of Dementors, bloody things.

"I have no idea what to do" whispered Neville looking stricken, dispite all the confidence he had gained over the years he still remained as nervous and worried as ever,

"No, I think that one goes in first" he heard Harry respond uncertain, Potions was by far their worst lessons and they always put that down to their bloody nuisance of a teacher and suddenly he felt rage build up inside him once more and he turned to Harry and Neville

"This is so unfair, if he wanted to punish me, why didn't he just give me a detention or something!"

"No talking Weasley, detention!" Snape's voice rang out and Harry and Neville couldn't help but explode into laughter.

"Bloody Snape, sure he can read minds" Ron mumbled, his face turning bright red.

"What did I just say Weasley, fifty points from Gryffindor" and with that the Slythrin began to snicker, and Ron began to fume, had it been a cartoon rest assured smoke would have been raising from his ears at this very second, they looked so red that it looked like there was. Harry reached over and grabbed his arm "just leave it, not worth it" and Ron reluctantly agreed, since the three off them were planning on starting to illegal train magic soon, they needed to stay as invisible as possible, hard when one is the most famous wizard of all time and the other has hair that looks like the skyline of London during the great fire.

"Yeah. Just do your potion, you know what's Snape is like" Neville smiled leaning in, in fact all three were leant in talking that none of them notice Theodore Nott lean over and quickly throw a small object into Ron's cauldron. Ron nodded at the two before returning to work, his eyes however were locked on Snape, a fierce hatred held inside them

"I actually hope he is on You-Know-Who's side, then we'll get a chance to teach him a lesson for a change" he said, and the other two laughed slightly as Ron threw his next ingredient carelessly into the cauldron. Which violently exploded.

He heard screams as he felt himself fly backwards, he felt burning, was he on fire?, "Ron!" he heard vaguely, his hands shaking too much to use them, he could taste the blood in his mouth, feel it dripping from his face and he saw Harry, Neville, Seamus, Dean, Lavender and Parvarti stood over him looking worried before he passed out and everything went black.

**A/N - So what you think?, what about the revenge? And Ron and Neville's friendship?. Also what do you think about the way the story is progressing, and where do you think it will lead onto next? Let me know in your reviews.**

**COMING 1****st**** APRIL 2010 - DREAMLAND - When Harry finds himself locked inside a permanent dream, its up to Ron to discover a way to save his friend which leads him on a journey through the history of Hogwarts and Magic itself, while all the time Harry must survive the horrors that haunt him in a place where anything is possible.**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen - Guilt

Once again the school was all about the gossip of a single event, Ronald Weasley was lay in hospital with what was being described as "serious injuries" due to a explosion in potions class. Hermione had just finished charms class when she heard the news, fellow Ravenclaw Anthony Goldstein had rushed towards them in the corridor, looking like he had just heard the juiciest news ever.

"You guys here the news?" he had said stopping in front of them, Hermione like the rest of her friends just shook their heads and he went on "Ron Weasley has just been rushed to the hospital wing, apparently his cauldron exploded in potions class, and its bad" and Hermione heard Lisa gasp, Padma seemed to be extremely interested and Michael looked a little worried but seemed to be trying to hide it.

"According to Lavender Brown, he was thrown across the room, and literally covered head to toe in blood" and Hermione felt herself turn cold, she had never got on with Ron Weasley but he was a Hogwarts Prefect, and from what she had heard he was a generally nice person, though he certainly haven't given her that impression personally.

"So What happened?" Michael asked "what caused the potion to explode" and Hermione listened in cursorily, "I don't know, but Lavender said something about the Slytherins, but she didn't say much, she might just be making it up" Anthony answered and Hermione couldn't help but agree, Lavender was known for her ability to spread rumours

"Well it wouldn't surprise me" Padma spoke up, suddenly sounding superior to the others "I mean, everyone already knows Ron attacked d Malfoy, perhaps this was revenge" she said and the others agreed. Hermione felt her blood run cold, she remember Ron's reaction to her giving in the evidence, had he known something like this would happen, had it been her involvement which had caused him to be lay in the hospital wing. She reminded herself that he deserved it, not the explosion, god no she didn't thing he deserved that. He did however deserve to be implicated in the attack on Malfoy, the evidence said it was him, and if it wasn't him then he didn't have much to worry about did he, but he did, there was no concrete evidence that Ron had been involved and the evidence that there was had yet to be investigated.

Hermione couldn't think of much else for the day, her mind remained on the red-headed Gryffindor, at dinner she looked over to the red clocked table at the Weasley twins, only to find them absent, Lee Jordon was still sat there but looking somewhat depressed, and her concern for Ron peaked ever higher, and so did the strange feeling of guilt - this wasn't her fault she reminded herself, but she couldn't shake the feeling off.

"Hermy!" Terry snapped her out of it and it seemed like everyone had started to eat their dinners, even she had somehow managed to get food on her plate, how it got their was a mystery.

"Just asking, if you wanted to go to the library after classes?, get some extra revision" Terry asked and Hermione noticed that everyone was looking at her awaiting a answer and from that she could deduce that it was a group study session, and with a genuine smile on her face she nodded and with that everyone seemed to go back to their own dinners. Hermione however did not fee like eating. Time went so slow yet seemed to fly past her at the same time, she didn't take any information in class, something which was a first for her, and this made her even more annoyed with herself for not being able to get a grip of her selves, she hadn't even done anything wrong. Infact he had been the one out of bounds and breaking curfew, and possibly even behind a vicious assault on a Hogwarts Prefect; but he was also the one now lay in the hospital wing.

The library passed quickly and before she knew it she was climbing into bed, Ron Weasley still on her mind like a annoying toddler it wouldn't leave hear alone, poking and prodding at her demanding her attention because it simply refused to go away.

The next morning, as she made her way down to breakfast, she walked to her table without glancing over once, refusing to let herself think about Ron Weasley and have a repeat performance of yesterday, but these hopes were dashed when she noticed Lisa's eyes kept shooting over to something Hermione couldn't see. She turned to look, curiosity got the better of her and sat at the Gryffindor table was Ron Weasley. Hermione could only stare in shock, he looked so different, his once shaggy hair was now cut short, the left side of his face had a large thin burn mark which seemed to frame his face. She noticed he was wearing a glove on only one hand and had to wonder what injures had his hands had. She watched as he climbed to his feet, saying something to both Neville and Harry, she didn't know why but she thought she saw his eyes travel upwards and look directly at Umbridge as he spoke, as if it was her they were discussing. He then turned and walked away, and she didn't know why she did it or what she was doing but she got up off her seat and followed him out of the great hall, after yesterday she felt she had to talk to him, see if any of her worries were justified.

"Ron!" she called out as he was halfway up the staircase in the entrance hall. He turned slightly surprised and looking somewhat annoyed to be stopped and all of Hermione's reasons seemed to vanish and she wondered what she was doing

"I just wanted to see how you are?" she said quickly, not taking a breath, the closer she was, the more painful his burnt face looked "I heard what happened" and Ron smiled slightly, his eye brows shot up in a sarcastic salute "well I guess there was no hope of keeping this one quiet"

"not in this school" Hermione said quickly, surprising herself by her words and Ron too seemed surprised, but also he seemed slightly thrilled, something Hermione didn't understand "Did Hermione Granger, prefect and all round teacher's pet just make a joke?"

"I'm not a teacher's pet!" she shot back

"You are a little bit" he replied

"Well you're a arrogant fool who can't even make a simple potion" she shot back once more, getting quite annoyed now and the look on Ron's face showed surprise by her words, he seemed to glow red before he spoke again in hurtful words

"Well you're a annoying know-it-all who can't keep her nose out of other people's business!" he spat and Hermione re-coiled at how much the words hurt her, how had them talking gone so bad in so little time, she only wanted to see if he was okay. She could feel the tears threatening to flow, and Ron seemed to notice also because his expression softened slightly, but too late because Hermione had had enough and was walking away trying to get away from him, she headed towards Ravenclaw tower. Throwing herself onto her bed, she began to cry.

She only realised the time when it was almost too late, she had spent so much time crying she was almost late for her first lesson, she quickly wiped her face, grabbed her bag and raced downstairs. The exit to the corridor opened and she stepped out into the main school, taking three steps a voice rang out behind her

"Hi"

She turned, Ron Weasley was stood leant against the wall, apparently their talk was not yet over.

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**A/N - So what you think?, sorry it took so long but life's got really busy for me lately and I hardly ever have time for myself. What you think about Ron's injures?, and Hermione's feelings towards the incident? We got a short Hermione / Ron encounter this chapter and in the next chapter you will see how it continues. Let me know in your**** reviews. **"

**TOMORROW - DREAMLAND CHAPTER ONE**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen - Caught In The Crossfire

Hermione turned around and spotted Ron who was leant upon the wall, in a place it would have been impossible for her to see him until she had left the common room, and she knew that was his general idea.

"Hi" he smiled though Hermione did not smile back, the memories of their early encounter still fresh in her mind "I was beginning to think you had climbed out a window or something" Ron laughed, and Hermione realised he had been waiting outside all this time, she couldn't help but feel a little happier at the thought but she was still extremely annoyed.

"I was reading" she lied but she knew that her red eyes would give her away but Ron seemed to accept it as a answer "I just wanted to say, that I didn't mean what I said earlier"

"You've waited all this time to say sorry?"

"oh no, I've come to tell you I didn't mean what I said"

"So you're not saying sorry?"

"Not really"

"It sounds like it"

"My Mistake, I didn't mean to give you that impression"

Hermione stared at Ron in disbelief as he gave her a lop-sided grin which screamed mischief, she knew from what she had heard that he was not one for saying sorry to people, but this was a little over the top in her mind, it was only one word and frankly she felt like she deserved to hear it from him after his hurtful words.

"So do you accept my what sounds like sorry but actually isn't but it's the closest thing your going to get?" he asked, and she knew that he was teasing her, but instead of being annoyed she couldn't fight the small smile appearing on her face.

"And for the record, I can brew a potion" Ron laughed, and Hermione remembered the words which she had spoken to him, and she suddenly remember something "I don't doubt it, you're potion making is on par with your spell work" she smiled and Ron laughed "that a dig at my spell work?"

"Turned any rats yellow lately?" Hermione smiled, and Ron went deep red, a victorious smile appeared on Hermione's face, Ron seemed to be getting redder and she knew she was remembering the time they had met on the train.

"I hate my brothers" Ron muttered, and Hermione smiled even wider at the clear embarrassment in his voice "I fight three headed dogs, giant chess sets and massive snakes, and that bloody rat comes back to haunt me" he laughed, and Hermione was listening intently, she had never heard much about his and Harry's adventures in the school, though she knew they were dangerous.

Hermione was late for lesson, she had spent too much time talking to Ron before she had realised she was late, and she knew that Umbridge would not be happy, she never was when people arrived late for her lesson.

"Ah Miss Granger" Umbridge spoke when Hermione arrived sweaty and out of breath for her lesson, she had just ran across the castle in order to get to her lesson, and she never was the most athletic person in the world.

"So nice of you to join us, sit down please and see me after lesson" Umbridge said and Hermione moved, sitting between Terry and Padma, all eyes were on her, it was clear that her being late for lesson was something to be noticed, it didn't happen too often, in fact this may be the first time.

"Now as I was saying" Umbridge smiled "is that some rumours concerning your fellow students have reached my ears, and I ask all of you, and the ministry and also the minister himself asks you, that if you have any information about any sort of unlawful behaviour, then please do not hesitate to report it to myself" she smiled and Hermione was sitting up straight, this sounded like a chance to prove herself to the ministry as someone who could be trusted. Hermione shots her hand into the air and Umbridge noticed it

"Yes Miss Granger?" she sounded quite annoyed at the interruption

"I was just wondering if their was any specific things we should be looking out for?" she smiled, and Umbridge seemed to brighten up at once when Hermione had spoke, and Hermione beamed at this.

"Very good question Miss Granger, the Ministry advises for students such as yourselves to look for anybody who may be planning anything to hinder the Ministry or planning any unlawful activities" she smiled and Hermione saw Ernie McMillan lean over to Susan Bones "in other words, will someone please find something dirty to pin on Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley" he said as the two laughed, agreeing on what he had said. Hermione couldn't help but get slightly annoyed at the assumption.

"So where were you?" Terry asked "I was about to tell Umbridge you had fallen down the stairs or something" and Padma laughed as Hermione rolled her eyes "I just lost track of time" she answered, which technically was the truth and she felt no reason to tell them why she had forgotten the time, after all she felt people had a right to keep secrets - unlike Padma, who unfortunately did not

"Why?" she asked, she had caught the scent of what could be juicy information, Hermione knew she would not let go.

"No reason, we better get to work, right Terry? She asked turning to Terry for support, but he just smiled "nah, work can wait, I wanna hear this"

"Traitor" Hermione muttered as Terry shot her a ear to ear grin designed to mock her.

"I was just late, I was reading and I lost track of time" Hermione answered, using the same lie she had used earlier, she knew if she had told them that she was talking to Ron that Padma would demand every word spoken and the facial expressions he used, Michael would get really annoying and broody when he found out and Terry would make it worse by laughing at Michael's expense and finally Lisa, well Hermione didn't know how Lisa would react, she hadn't spoke about Ron since whatever they had ended, and Hermione could only think she would be okay with it.

Class ended and Hermione stayed behind as Umbridge had told her too, her fellow Ravenclaw's left, telling her they would meet her in the next lesson which it seemed Hermione was destined to be late for yet again. Once the room was empty except for Hermione and Umbridge, the latter spoke "So, care to explain to me why you were so late for my lesson?" she asked, and Hermione knew she couldn't lie to a Hogwarts Teacher "I lost track of time Professor"

"Why?" Umbridge spot back

"Because -" Hermione began about to tell her "reading" lie but then she remembered she was talking to a Hogwarts Professor and a Ministry Official "- I was talking to Ronald Weasley in the corridor, and I lost track of time Professor" Hermione answered, and Umbridge's eyebrows shot up and a look of curiosity appeared on her face "I didn't realise you and Mr Weasley were close?" Umbridge asked and Hermione felt herself go slightly red "were not really" she muttered but it did nothing to lower Umbridge's seemingly new found happiness "of course, well as you know Miss Granger, Ronald Weasley has had, lets say a subject history at this school, often putting himself and his fellow students at risk with his actions" Umbridge smiled as Hermione stared at her, Hermione classed herself as a intelligent individual but she had no idea where this talk was heading "and being friends with such a person as Mr Weasley does pose a few risks, as does being friends with Mr Potter who I'm sure you're aware is very close to Ronald, like brother's I've heard" Umbridge continued "and if someone, say someone like Ronald Weasley was to cause trouble, or try anything to hinder the ministry, you would want to make sure that he is not successful am I correct?" Umbridge asked and Hermione nodded quickly "it would be my duty as a Hogwarts Prefect" and the smile on Umbridge's face grew larger.

"Indeed it would, remember that, because the ministry has a lot of influence at this school, and we may very well be in a position to choose which lucky student becomes head girl in years to come" and with those words Hermione's eyes grew wide, her lips curved into a smile at the thought of being head girl and Umbridge continued "and the student who is chosen, will surely be one who the Ministry knows it can trust with such responsibility, don't you agree miss Granger"

"Yes Professor"

"Excellent, you may go Miss Granger" Umbridge smiled "there will be no punishment this time, its clear that it was not your intention to be late and it would unfair to punish such a excellent student for a single lapse of form" Umbridge gave her a wide toad-like grin as Hermione stood up, smiling back she left the room thinking off nothing but the prospect of being Head Girl.

* * *

**A/N - So What you think?. You like the Ron/Hermione encounter. What about Umbridge and Hermione's talk, and what do you think about the direction of the story as a whole. Let me know in your lovely reviews which I am very grateful for (50 reviews so far!, thanks to everyone for them) . Also if you have the time, check out DREAMLAND which currently has its first two chapters up (yes, little shameless self-advertising there, you got to love it).**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen - Breaking Walls

Two days had past, and the whole school was now getting pumped up for the upcoming quiddich match between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Hermione found all of this quite annoying at times, the number of incidents in the corridors was increasing by the day and in her view things were quickly getting out of control. She had come to the library for two reasons, one it was her place which she always came when she needed to get away, and secondly she had to do some research for the homework Flitwick had set them earlier this morning. Collecting all the books she needed, she headed to her usual table, it was at the back of the library where she was less likely to be disturbed but also it was near a window which means she got a great view of the grounds, something to take her mind of things whenever she felt she needed a short break from the intense studying which she had planned. It was as she sat down and was about to open her book she saw him - Ronald Weasley was alone, in the library and appeared to be very interested in the books. She had to blink repeatedly to make sure she wasn't seeing things because everything she knew about Ronald was in contrast to what she was seeing before her. He finally seemed to find the book he was looking for, and quickly removed it from the shelve and walked out of sight. Hermione couldn't help but feel a overwhelming curiosity as to what would bring Ronald into the domain of the library, before she knew what she was doing she stood up and walked over to the shelve he had been stood at. The books surprised her, they were mostly spell books, and books to improve your spell work, pretty standard reading material and material she was sure Ronald had known for quite a while. She tried to work out which book he had taken, but she couldn't place any missing books. The curiosity was burning her now. She looked sideways, Ronald was sat alone at the table, from where she stood she couldn't see the pages of the book. She knew she should just go sit back down, and leave Ronald to his own business which she had no right for intruding upon but something inside her head was screaming for her to get a closer look and see what he was reading.

Walking forward, she kept her eyes focused on the bookshelves, trying to get closer, until finally she was almost hovering behind him, surprisingly he had yet to notice she was their, and a slight smile appeared on her face, she tried to step closer, until suddenly her legs hit something causing her to fall face first to the ground and swallow a mouthful of her own hair.

"Bloody Hell!" Ron shouted as he jumped in surprise, Hermione had tripped over his bag and was now lay directly in front of him, once the moment of shock had past the laughter began at the hilarious sight. Hermione however did not find it funny, her face glowing redder as each second past she was beginning to wish the floor would break and she would fall out of sight. Hermione quickly climbed to her feet, turning round she saw Ron look at her, his face clearly holding back laughter "are you okay?" he stumbled through the laughs, and Hermione quickly brushed all her hair from over her face, and with all the dignity she could muster drew herself to full height "Yes I'm fine, you know you really shouldn't leave your bag their, anyone could have tripped over it" and with this Ron's laughter exploded

"My bag?" he laughed "my bag didn't do anything, you walked over here and randomly kicked it, my bag didn't move" he laughed and Hermione felt herself getting more annoyed than necessary.

"Someone could have been seriously injured because of your carelessness -"

"You're the one who wasn't watching where they were walking!" Ron snapped back, seemingly getting annoyed also. Hermione suddenly stopped, once again it had taken her less than five sentences to get into a argument with Ronald, despite the fact sometimes they got on rather well, she couldn't shake of the impression that he was very Jekyll and Hyde.

"Anything you need?" Ron asked after what seemed like a whole minute of them stood in a awkward silence, his voice had lost all the annoyance but their was still something in it that made her feel he was being less than friendly. "No I'm fine" Hermione answered "what are you doing here anyway, I thought you'd be preparing for your quiddich game tomorrow" and with that Ron seemed to go paler at the prospect, Hermione couldn't help but think he was getting cold feet about it, Ron however soon recovered and smiled, holding up the book he was reading "I'm studying, not everything's about Quiddich" he smiled and Hermione's shot up, she was starting to suspect that someone had tied the real Ron up somewhere and was using Polyjuice potion to look like him.

"Well that's not true" Ron laughed "but I won't be playing tomorrow, Cormic bloody McLaggen will" Ron spat, and Hermione could sense the envy and jealously in his voice, Hermione eyes suddenly drew down to his glove and suddenly she understood, Ron couldn't play keeper because his hand had suffered such injuries in the explosion, she was still to see Ron without his glove since he left the hospital wing .

"Sorry" Hermione spoke, and she was, she knew how much Quiddich meant to Ron, everyone did. Ron stood up, grabbing his bag he slung it over his shoulder, leaving the book where it lay on the table "how bad is it?" she asked without thinking, and Ron's eyebrows shot up in surprise, not because of the question, but because for some reason beyond him, shouted the question at him.

"Em" he replied "its not so bad, just hurts a little when I move it" he smiled, and Hermione couldn't help but smile back "hopefully it'll get better and I can play the next Quiddich match, if Cormic hasn't taken my place that is" he laughed, however Hermione could hear the real doubt in his voice. "I'm sure you'll be fine, I mean you're a Weasley after all, you're known for your Quiddich skills" Hermione smiled but she noticed Ron just pulled a ugly face at her, as if he had eaten something sour "something wrong?"

"No, I mean I am a Weasley after all, which obviously means I'm a younger version of my brothers" he ranted, and Hermione was shocked, such anger she had never heard in his voice, because it wasn't your typical anger, it was anger not at her, but at himself, and Hermione now wondered if the walls she knew surrounded Ronald were beginning to break.

"Anyway" Ron said, smiling once more, and Hermione was surprised by how well he could pull of a fake smile - because she knew it was a fake smile, no one got happy that quickly for no reason, "I'm sure Harry will be looking for me, he's properly finished training by now" he smiled, and he went to leave "you forgot you're book" Hermione said quickly and Ron stopped, looking back with a slight smile on his face "oh well, not much help anyway" and with that he disappeared around the corner. Hermione walked forward, grabbing the book she peered at the cover; it was a spell book, though it one for N.E.W.T students, one that should have been in the restricted section, so how had Ron Weasley picked it out of normal shelf, and Hermione couldn't help but wonder why Ron needed a N.E.W.T standard spell book.

**A/N - So what you think?. What you think about the Ron / Hermione interaction, I know some of you saying that the pace of the relationship is too slow, so I am speeding it up a little bit : ). Also what you think of Ron's taste in books? And can you guess why he's reading it. **

**Also, a quick question to you all. What would you say to flashback chapters, showing Ron's first four years in Hogwarts, and the adventures he and Harry had. Let me know all of the above in your lovely reviews.**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen – Nightime Wanderings

Ron sat in the great hall eating dinner, half a day had passed since he had talked with Granger in the library. At the moment he was sat talking to Neville – actually they were whispering, their current topic of conversation was not one they wanted to be overheard

"We're gonna have to find somewhere else, if we keep using the common room we're gonna get caught" Neville said and Ron couldn't help but agree; over the days they had been practicing spells, just Neville, himself and Harry and they were keeping it quiet, but people (mainly the twins) were beginning to ask questions.

"I know, me and Harry are working on it, but the toad is making it bloody difficult" Ron frowned and both looked over towards Umbridge who was sat at the teacher's table a smug smile on her wide mouth.

"Would it be so bad if we told other people though – you're brothers and Ginny would be up for this, so would half the common room"

"Harry doesn't want too, wants to keep it between us three"

"I still can't see why"

"Harry's a private guy – he's got trust issues" Ron said, a little humour in his voice. "Anyway, where is Harry anyway?"

"Writing a letter to Sirius" Neville responded and Ron just nodded his head and returned to his toast. "Anyway, tonight I'm going to go looking around for some place better – one of the perks of being a noble prefect" he smiled smugly, puffing out his chest in a grand impression of his older brother Percy which caused Neville to laugh.

"Just don't get caught – the toad is watching" Neville said, the spite in his voice surprised Ron, he wondered if him and Harry were having too much of a effect on him.

"Anyway, we got Defence against the dark arts" Ron smiled, and Neville seemed to sigh, another lesson doing nothing but reading out a bloody book.

"Ah welcome class, please sit down so we can begin the lesson" Umbridge smiled, and Ron blinked repeatedly, how did she get here before him?, this woman was the devil!, he was beginning to think fighting who-know-who was pointless, maybe they should just trick him into a room with the toad and see what happens, either way Ron saw it as a win-win situation.

"Today we shall be reading Chapter Five, please read in silence" she smiled and Ron turned his attention to the book – well actually, not the book but the much more interesting candle burn on the table which had the shape of devil horns, Ron couldn't help but chuckle, such a fitting tribute to their current teacher. The door to the classroom opened suddenly and Harry walked in, and Ron sighed, knowing what was coming

"Mr Potter, you're late" Umbridge said, smiling as if the chance of a lifetime had presented itself.

"Sorry – professor" he finshed bitterly, and Umbridge smiled wider "tut tut Mr Potter, you're tone leaves much to be desired, I'm afraid I'm going to have to give you detention" she spoke and Ron sighed knowing what Harry would do now

"What for!"

"For being late to class Mr Potter, and by doing so you have disturbed the learning environment of the classroom and you must be punished" she smiled and Harry moved across the classroom sitting beside Ron

"Why were you late?" Ron asked

"Busy" he said sharply

"well hope it was worth it, you're bloody hands only just healed"

"yeah well, maybe we should stop talking, wouldn't want you to get detention since you're only got one good hand left anyway" Harry snapped and turned his attention to the book - bloody Harry, he's been biting his head of all bloody year, and Ron wasn't stupid (which may be news to some people) but he was guessing it had something to do with the dreams he had been having, Ron knew Harry hadn't slept well in weeks.

"no need to bite my head off" Ron mumbled, turning his attention back to the burn mark on the desk where his attention remained for the rest of the lesson.

The day passed quickly, Harry and Ron spent the day insulting Umbridge before the former went of to his detention where he undoubtedly be getting his hand carved by a quill, and Ron was in his friend's trunk pulling out a piece of parchment which would be helping his search for a better place the two of them, plus Neville of course to practice, and before he knew it, he was alone in the corridors of Hogwarts.

He never really liked the corridors at night, maybe it was growing up in a house full of noise, but it always seemed too quiet, he could feel his footsteps echoing through the empty space, his wand aloft proving the only light as the dark clouds covered the moon, he peered down at the map in his hands; Ernie McMillian and Hannah Abbot were on the first floor, and Hermione Granger and Michael Corner were on the seventh, and the only other person walking the corridor was himself, so as long as he kept a eye on the four prefects, he would be fine, although even if he did get caught he was a Prefect himself and hopefully talk himself out of trouble - though he hoped it wasn't Granger who caught him, then he would be screwed - and then he mentally cursed himself for thinking that, with his luck it had more chance of happening now.

He made his way across the sixth floor, checking the map when suddenly he saw the fast approaching Ravenclaw's and quickly threw himself into a empty classroom, closing the door behind him as footsteps sounded outside

"So Hermione, you doing anything for the next Hogsmeade visit?" Michael asked

"I don't know, I mean there's so much studing to do, I think it might be for the best to give it a miss and study" she responded and Ron couldn't help but roll his eyes, Michael had been barking up that tree for years - let it go man!. As the footsteps and voices died away, Ron quickly moved out the classroom, and up the nearest staircase to the seventh floor. As he moved across quickly, he couldn't think of what to do, he stopped and looked at the map, but nowhere shouted "Choose me for your illegal gathering!" like he hoped a room would, and this map showed everything in Hogwarts!. The idea of using the Chamber Of Secrets hit in again, but he knew he could never face that place again and also Neville wasn't a very good flyer so he might not be able to get out.

For such a large and corridor ridden castle, the amount of secret rooms in Hogwarts was shocking!. Not one!. All he asked was for one single room where they could practice, and he hadn't even found that!, he began to think doing this by himself was pointless, best try again with Harry, Ron himself never managed to do much and things always worked out better when Harry helped him. He paced up and down, trying to find a place on the map. He needed someplace safe. Somewhere where they could learn how to fight and not get caught. As he thought this, he heard a sudden noise and then he thought Fred and George must have slipped something in his drink, because a door was appearing out of nothing on the wall - then he remembered he once found the entrance to the most evil part of the castle hidden behind a sink in the girls bathroom so nothing surprised him much anymore. He looked at the map, shocked to see the room was nowhere to be seen. Ron guessed he should take back the "nothing could surprise him" speech he had thought moments before. Ron suddenly heard footsteps once more, checking the map he was shocked to see the Ravenclaws on their way back to their common room - walking through the corridor he stood in, realising he was caught he placed his wand to the map and whispered "Mischief Managed" and stuff it in his robes, he moved away from the door and watched as it vanished before his eyes

"Weasley!" a voice said and he turned round to see Michael Corner and Hermione Granger staring at him - Busted!.

"What you doing here Weasley?" Corner asked "you should be in Gryffindor tower" and Ron just stared at them, both were looking at him as if he was a little child who had broken the rules - yet again.

"Well?" Hermione asked sharply, she was in prefect mode and the authority in her voice proved it, Ron just continued to stare, he wasn't doing it as a gameplan, he just didn't know what to say, until he finally manages to come out with "I just fancied a walk"

"A walk?" Corner asked

"That's right, a walk. You know, where one leg goes in front of the other and go places" Ron smiled "call yourself a Ravenclaw"

"I'm surprised you can take your mind away from your fists to think of that, not very Gryffindor of you" Corner sneered, and Ron felt his ears grow hot and he knew they had gone red. Hermione looked between the two of them, looking slightly annoyed with them both, Ron knew that look, his mother had worn it many times, it was usually combined with a muttering of the word "boys".

"Anyway, I'm going to go back to my common room" Ron said, and turned to walk away, he had gotten half way down the corridor when he heard Hermione call his name, he turned to see her walking towards him holding - the map!.

"You dropped this" she said handing it to him

"Thanks" he said a little too quickly and her eyes narrowed "What are you up to?"

"Nothing" once again too quickly he spoke

"Yes you are, hanging out in the library looking at spell books, walking the corridors at night, you're up to something, just like Umbridge said" she said and Ron's face darkened at the mention at the toad

"oh yeah, got you all spying on us does she" he scoffed and Hermione seemed a little offended "spying?, she is a Hogwarts teacher, and it looks like your breaking the rules" and Ron couldn't help but laugh - she really didn't have a clue what was happening outside these walls, he almost envied her

"You're up to something Ronald Weasley, and I'm going to find out what and put a stop to it, now I suggest you return to your common room" she said and turned to walk back to Corner who was looking at him with a glare. Ron watched them go before he turned back to Gryffindor tower, he knew it was pointless to go back to the door tonight, he would have to return tomorrow, but as he climbed into his bed, it was the words of Hermione Granger that ran through his head; he had faced giant snakes, living chess amoung other things - how much trouble could one Ravenclaw student cause him?.

Ronald Weasley chuckled a the thought, unaware of just who he was messing with.

**A/N - Sorry it took so long, been busy but its here now and the next one will be along in less than a week. So what you think? Let me know in your lovely reviews. I know some people have reviewed saying the plot isn't all there, and because I love you all so much I'm gonna make it more plot driven and at the moment as you can guess from this, Ron and Hermione are in on different sides in the "Hogwarts Civil War" but its gonna bring them closer as she tries to discover what he's been up to. **


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen - Hermione Granger aka. Sherlock Holmes

Hermione awoke the next morning, she and Michael had come back from their prefect rounds and he had been in quite a bad mood, apparently she "seemed to friendly" with Ronald Weasley, which was such a petty and insulting thing to say; she happened to be a prefect, and wasn't one to be getting "friendly" with other so called prefects while she was on official prefect business. She awoke to find Lisa still asleep in bed, Hermione knew that she would regret not getting breakfast, as they had a long day ahead of them today and so Hermione walked over, and not too roughly shook her friend, causing her to stir

"Ron" she yawned and giggled at the same time and Hermione rolled her eyes, even after what happened between the two, Lisa apparently still had a attraction to Ronald, something which Hermione didn't understand, he had hurt her, why should he get a second chance, logic says its more than likely he would hurt her again.

"Lisa!" Hermione said, shaking her friend once more, only this time she did it a little too rough and due to Lisa's tendency to sleep at the edge of the bed she found herself sprawled on the floor "morning to you too Hermione" her sleepy voice groaned as she reappered from behind the bed, stumbling slightly and yawning, "what time is it?"

"It's past eight o'clock, we should be heading down the great hall" Hermione answered and Lisa nodded. Hermione however still had to wait for her to get dressed so she made her way down to the common room, she expected it to be empty, but instead she found Terry Boot seemingly waiting for her, and looking annoyed

"Thank you Hermione" he snapped, and Hermione froze unsure what was wrong with him "thanks to you, I had to put up with Michael muttering all night about you and you're apparent lustful feelings for Ron Weasley" he said and Hermione felt herself turn scarlet, she stared at Terry who was staring at him, she took a deep breath and was about to fight back when she noticed that Terry was currently fighting a losing battle against the laughter building inside of him, a moment later he burst out laughing

"That's not funny!"

"Oh it is Hermy, you didn't see Michael last night, it was hilarious"

"Do not call me Hermy!, this is like the five hundredth time I've told you, how many times till you get the message"

"One more"

"Good….stop calling me Hermy!" she snapped "and I didn't do anything, I can't understand why Michael is upset!"

"Seriously" Terry said, still laughing "Michael likes you, its not hard to figure out, he was going on how these prefect rounds were the perfect time for him to get closer to you - if you know what I mean, anyway he does that, and you go spend every chance to get talking to a out of bounds Weasley, its classic!" and Hermione felt herself blush even more, and become more annoyed with Terry.

"Its not funny, and Michael does not think of me like that!" Hermione exclaimed before turning away to head to the great hall, she just wanted to get away from Terry, he was always the one who took jokes too far, he seemed to find everything funny.

Unlucky for Hermione she wasn't watching where she was going and slammed into someone as she turned a corner and embarrassingly found herself sat on the floor after being knocked over

"Sorry, I didn't see you, I was in a rush!" the voice of Neville Longbottom said, and he quickly offered her a hand up, Hermione huffed, trying to remain with some dignity in tact "thank you" she muttered "though perhaps you shouldn't be in so much of a rush"

"Yeah sorry, like I said, in a rush"

"Lessons don't start for another half hour" she pointed out and Neville seemed to get what she meant

"Oh, yeah I know, I got to meet Ron, he wants to show me something" he said, and quickly he turned around and walked away leaving Hermione alone, she was about to turn to go to the great hall when it hit her - what was Ron showing Neville, couldn't it wait, whatever it was it wasn't in their common room, because he was heading the wrong way. She made a quick decision and headed the direction Neville had left her, hoping to catch them in the act, Umbridge's words ran through her mind

"_because the ministry has a lot of influence at this school, and we may very well be in a position to choose which lucky student becomes head girl in years to come"_

_"and the student who is chosen, will surely be one who the Ministry knows it can trust with such responsibility,"_

Head girl….the idea sent chills of excitement through her body, she was sure that if she caught whatever Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter were up to she was a certain for the position which personally she felt she deserved - no other girl in her year had given the amount of time to studying for their classes that she had, she was the best of everything - and that's what the teachers looked for, the person who was the best, wasn't it.?

She saw Neville's cloak whip around the corner, and she sped up to catch up, she tired to be as quiet as possible, she never had to sneak before, it was oddly thrilling, she felt like a detective or someone, like Sherlock Holmes she thought, the idea of being one of her father's favourite literacy characters gave her a odd sense of excitement. She followed Neville up a staircase, and suddenly she realised they were on the seventh floor, Neville was heading towards the same spot she had found Ron the night before - but why?, why would Ron return there to show him something? Unless the thing was already here, Ron must have put it there last night, but then why not just get it and go, and then it hit her, because he couldn't, it was stuck in the corridor, suddenly she heard voices

"That's Amazing" Neville spoke "How did you find it?"

"Last night, just came across it, though bloody Corner and Granger stopped me from having a good look at it" he said before muttering something which sounded a awful lot like "bloody prefects"

"You told Harry?" Neville asked and Ron didn't answer - verbally at least. "This is what we need though" Ron said "its perfect"

"We could get more people!" Neville said and Ron seemed to stay silent for some time

"Twins would be up for it, and Ginny, though Harry might say no, you know what he's like, if its too many people he wont have time to brood" Ron said and Neville chuckled

"Harry's not been that bad lately" Ron continued "now that I think about it, he's been talking to Sirius more, going to visit him for Christmas actually. You got any plans for Christmas Nev?"

"Nan's house and I'll visit St Mungo's" Neville answered, and Hermione couldn't help but wonder why Neville would visit St Mungo's "what about you?" he asked

"Same, going to visit Ginny on Christmas Eve" Ron spoke, his voice sounded oddly different as he did "and sleep through the rest" he chuckled "anyway, come on, lets have a better look at this" he said and it went silent. Hermione decided to walk through the corridor to see what they were doing, and she quickly left the staircase, making sure her prefect badge was clearly in sight, she tried to radiate authority as she turned the corner to face a empty corridor. The two boys had gone, she hadn't heard them walk away, so she knew that wasn't what had happened, but she couldn't think what actually did happen, and once again Hermione was left fuming, she hated not knowing things, and right now she wanted to know how they had seemingly vanished into thin air, but she knew one thing, she was going to find out!.

**A/N - So theres a new chapter for you, hope you all enjoyed it. Let me know what you think in your lovely reviews which I appreciate so much. Also if you have the time, check out my other Harry Potter fan fics (see what I did there, shameless self-advertising 101). **


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen - Prefect Meeting

Hermione waited, and she waited - and then she waited some more but Ronald and Neville didn't reappear in the corridor whilst she was there and soon enough she had to go to lesson, cursing the pair for making them miss her breakfast as she did. She arrived at Care For Magical Creatures a little late - late for a lesson, she felt quite ashamed of herself and it was all because of two Gryffindors she thought to herself, as she reached the gamekeepers cabin, she found Lisa and Padma stood looking quite nervous, though they seemed relieved when they saw her

"Where've you been?, we were getting worried!" Lisa exclaimed

"What kept you?" Padma asked most likely looking for gossip.

"I just lost track of time, where's the class? Where's professor Grubbly-Plank?" Hermione asked, looking over Lisa's shoulder as if the teacher was hiding behind her. "He went ahead, we had to wait for you, now come on!" Lisa said grabbing her hand and together they marched past the cabin to the direction which the Professor had clearly given Lisa and Padma and soon they found the rest of the class, stood by the side of the lake, Hermione saw Michael glance towards her before turning back and then glared at Terry who was trying not to laugh.

"Ah Miss Granger, so glad you could join us"

"Sorry Professor, I was held up performing Prefect duties" Hermione said quickly hoping she would be forgiven for her lateness.

"No worries Miss Granger, now we are here today as our lesson revolves around what lies beneath the water in this lake.."

"You mean the Giant Squid!" Hannah Abbot spat out quite rudely Hermione thought, to interrupt a teacher

"Not exactly Miss Abbot, today we're going to be learning about Merpeople, and what better place to do this than the place that happens to be their natural habitat………"

"Where we're you?" Michael asked from behind and Hermione quickly turned to him, didn't he know the teacher was talking, he should know better, he was a Prefect. "What Prefect business?"

"If you must know, I happened across two students who I believed to be up to no good, and I thought it my duty to stop them from whatever they were planning" Hermione answered, not looking at Michael but at the Professor by the lake.

"Which students? Was it the Weasley twins again?"

"No Michael. If you must know it was Neville Longbottom and Ronald Weasley"

"Weasley, why am I not surprised, the whole family deserves to be thrown out this place!, nothing but trouble!" he muttered to himself and Hermione rolled her eyes. Beside her she saw Lisa looking awkward, Padma leaning in to hear their talk and Terry and Anthony Goldstein were shaking with suppressed laughter.

"Well as I said Michael, though their behaviour suggested they were up to no good, I could find no evidence to back up the claim and when I realised the time I rushed straight down here to attend class, which if you don't mind, I would like to give my full attention" Hermione snapped and she heard Michael turn away muttering under his breath. Terry meanwhile burst into laughter and doubled over

"Mr Boot!" the professor exclaimed "is everything okay?"

"Never better" he responded still overcome with laughter.

The rest of the lesson passed without incident and Hermione was happy that she had learnt some new stuff about the Merpeople. However she now refused to talk to Michael for his rudeness in lesson, nor would she talk to Terry who she felt was taking the joke too far with his constant laughing at what she felt her expense. She had just made it into the Great Hall when Lisa asked her "did you see the newspaper this morning? About Umbridge" she said and Hermione just shook her head.

"She's been made Hogwarts High Inquisitor or something, apparently gives her more power over the school" and Hermione couldn't help but think, if she had more power over the school then the chances of her helping Hermione get head girl were higher, but did she want to get Head Girl that way, surely she was a sure candidate anyway, she got the highest marks and was a model students, wasn't that enough.

It turned out that this would effect her a lot sooner than she expected when the Prefects were called to a meeting in Umbridge's office. Hermione and Michael were the first to arrive, still not speaking to each other. Then was Ernie McMillian and Hannah Abbot of Hufflepuff and then Parvarti Patil arrived alone, followed by Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson of Slythrin - and then no one. Umbridge checked her watch, and Hermione knew that Ronald Weasley should have been here five minutes ago, until suddenly the door burst open and a sweaty and out of breath Weasley practically ran in.

"Mr Weasley, where have you been? And what - have you been doing!"

"Sorry - I'm late, had a incident - with - a - broomstick" he panted, Hermione couldn't shake the feeling he was lying, apparently Umbridge felt the same by her expression.

"Well since we are all here, let us begin" she spoke as Ron collapsed in the chair next to Parvarti "as you may be aware of, I - Dolores Jane Umbridge have been named the Hogwarts High Inquisitor, appointed such by the Ministry Of Magic and the Minster himself. Now with this role comes a lot more authority and responsibility, now though I'm sure that the current headmaster will have a long and successful career yet ahead of him, but you never know when a new headmaster or headmistress will be brought into effect, and if the time comes, then I do believe that the ministry will choose someone who they thought they can trust - like myself for example"

"Over my dead body" Ron muttered

"What was that Weasley?" Draco asked suddenly

"Nothing" Ron snapped back as Umbridge continued

"And I would like to remind you all, that should such events come to pass, then it would be - wise for students such as yourselves to be thinking about where your - lets say loyalties lie" she smiled and her eyes scanned the room before lingering on Ron who was picking at the hem of his robes, Hermione couldn't believe his disrespect

"Oh, one thing Miss" Michael said quickly "Ronald Weasley here was out of bounds last night, gave no reason, hardly the behaviour of a Prefect" he said smugly, and Draco chuckled slightly looking excited, Ron however glared at Michael in anger, for a moment he thought he was going to attack him, but instead he stayed sat down, his ears burning.

"Thank you Mr Corner" Umbridge smiled "Mr Weasley, care to explain this"

"I needed a walk" he said simply

"A walk, in the middle of the night"

"Yes"

"Why?"

"Stressed"

"How come?"

"New Teacher, bloody annoying" Ron snapped and Hermione gasped as did Hannah and Parvarti, Umbridge however remained the same but said "Detention Mr Weasley".

The meeting ended after that, and Hermione and Michael were walking to the great hall when Ron caught up with them, blocking their path

"Thanks for that!" he snapped at Michael who stood his ground

"what?, for telling the truth, you bloody Gryffindors, think you're so special!"

"I don't know what you're complaining about" Hermione snapped suddenly at Ron "all Michael did was tell the truth, it was your own fault for being out off bounds, you only have yourself to blame"

Ron stared at the two of them, like he was seeing them for the first time "oh I get it, you two think by sticking with the toad you're gonna become head boy and girl, like she said in that bloody annoying speech - and I thought Ravenclaw's were the smart ones, looks like you two should be in Slythrin" he finished, and with one last look of hate at Michael he stormed off.

**A/N - And there's another chapter for you, let me know what you think in your reviews. I know not much seemed to happen, but one event of this chapter will be very important and start a chain of events to bigger and more dramatic things. See if you can guess what. **


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty - Open Your Eyes

The next morning Hermione was walking out the common room with Lisa, both were talking about their plans for Christmas - Hermione was planning to visit her parents as always, much to the surprise of Lisa.

"Hermione, The Victor Krum has invited you too his house. Why aren't you going?"

"Because I hardly get to see my parents, and Viktor is a nice man he really is, but I cant afford to get distracted from my studies, not this year with the O.W.L's fast approaching.

Lisa could only stare at her as if she had gone mental, Padma suddenly rushes over to them, looking extremely excited "big news!" she squealed with delight "apparently last night in the Gryffindor tower, Harry Potter had some nightmares or something, anyway he woke up and started screaming about Ronald Weasley's dad having been attacked, and I talked to Anthony Goldstein a minute ago, his sister works at St Mungos' and it turns out that Ronald's dad was actually rushed to hospital last night!" she squealed as if it was the best news ever

"Is he okay?" Lisa asked and Hermione couldn't help but agree that was the most important piece of information, however Padma just shrugged and continued "no idea, must be bad, all the Weasley children have left the school already. Harry went too, what I want to know is, how did Harry know what had happened when he was asleep" and this time Hermione herself couldn't help but feel a little curious about that, once again she didn't know and she felt this was getting beyond annoying now. Then she remember the library awaited.

"Come on Lisa" Hermione said, and the two said goodbye to Padma who promised to know more by the evening before re-entering the great hall.

"You think he'll be okay?" Lisa asked after a moment of silence "Mr Weasley?"

"Can't really say, since we don't know what happened, being rushed to hospital can mean so many different things."

"I hope he's already" Lisa said quietly, more to herself than anything before turning back to Hermione "you should hear Ron talk about him, he's like his idol, I think it'll destroy him to lose his father, after what happened to his sister"

Hermione couldn't help but turn cold at the mention of Ginny Weasley, she then remembered that Mr Weasley would now be in the same building as his daughter. Hermione remember overhearing Ron talking to Neville about visiting, she couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

They arrived at the library to find that they weren't the only ones, Neville Longbottom was sat down reading what looked like a book about Herbology that Hermione had read in her third year at Hogwarts. She thought about Neville, he seemed to know more about Harry and Ronald than people seemed to think, but she knew that he was practically the third and final member of their little group they had formed. He was also her best shot of finding out what they were up too. Ron's words suddenly came back to her, was she acting like a Slythrin? Trying to get information out of Neville when he didn't have Ron or Harry to help him, she knew Neville could get easily flustered. She thought of the reason Ron and Harry weren't here with Neville, was she a bad person to take advantage of this situation for her own gain. Was head girl ship really that important?

"Hermione" Lisa's voice said breaking her out her train of thought "come on, you're staring in space" and with that Hermione quickly began walking through the library, she had decided that she would not sink to that level and take advantage of such a awful situation. Still - curiosity was building inside her.

"I'm going to get a book" Lisa said, seemingly annoyed for some reason. Hermione realised Lisa had been talking to her and she had been completely ignoring her, she didn't know what was wrong with her lately.

Figuring she had nothing better do, Hermione qot up and went looking at the shelves, she knew what she was looking for but was using the time to think. Things at Hogwarts sure had got more confusing ever since she made Prefect, but she was completely up to the challenge and ready for the responsibility she had no doubts about that.

She turned into a row of books to see Neville himself looking for a book, realising their was no one around she let curiosity get the better off her (just this once she said to herself) and approached him

"Hello Neville" she smiled and Neville turned to her, he seemed annoyed with her and she couldn't understand why

"Hello Hermione" he responded, his voice sounding like stone and Hermione's confusion turned into annoyance; why did everyone get mad at her, she hadn't done anything wrong, she hadn't broken any rules - unlike some people that she could name!.

"How's Ron?, I heard about his father" she asked, she was honestly worried about Ron, despite his many flaws he was a fellow Hogjarts Prefect. Neville however didn't seem to take her seriously because he chuckled "He told me you got him Detention with Umbridge"

"No" Hermione replied "Ron got himself detention when he broke the rules and Michael reported it like a Prefect should. I had nothing to do with it!"

Neville's face seemed to soften but Hermione was too annoyed now to care. It wasn't fair!, people always thought the worst of her; she had told on them, she had done something to impress the teachers!. Just because they weren't smart enough to look to the future!.

"Anyway, what's Ronald gets loads of detentions, why's he getting so made about this one, its never bothered him before" and with that Neville smiled at her, there was a look in her eyes that she didn't like, it was as if he pitied her for some reason.

"Umbridge has a very different types of detention. Cutting your hand open is hardy fair punishment" he laughed darkly and Hermione's mind went into overdrive- cutting hands open?, surely Neville was making that up, but Neville wasn't one to le, she knew that. When she snapped out her train of thought again she realised Neville had walked off, leaving her alone to think. Is why Ron was so annoyed with her and Michael, had he known was has going to happen in detention. Harry had lots of detentions that year, she had never aid too much attention to him, but when the Christmas holidays was over, she was going to watch the two more closely and this time she thought to herself, she'd be keeping a open mind. - after all, that's the only was you learnt.

**A/N - So there you go, hope you enjoyed it. I know not much happened this chapter but I promise I'll make it up to you next chapter which I'll post in two days - with the longest and most important chapter of the story so far. ****J**


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty One - My Dear Sister

Ronald Weasley was sat in the corridor, he had just left his mom and dad arguing, apparently he had tried to stitch up the snake bite using some muggle technique - his father never did learn much. Ron had gotten away from the twins and Harry, wanting some time alone. He hated this building, it was so blank and boring, and a constant reminder of his failure, the price of his selfishness. He walked blindly through the corridors though he knew exactly where he was heading, he had promised himself this time he would do it. Ronald had never visited Ginny alone, ever year he went with Neville and would send most the time looking after Mr and Mrs Longbottom, and he did this because - he couldn't bear to look at her, but this time it would be different he said to himself, the near death of his father and the rising conflict had been bearing down on him lately, and the one thing he needed to do was make peace with Ginny and before he knew it he found it he found himself in front the double doors which held the permanent residence ward.

_12 year old Ronald Weasley was sat eating breakfast with Harry Potter, both were talking about the one topic which was being talked about more than any other, the chamber of Secrets - the teaching table had just announced that the petrified victims would soon be awoken, and they would hopefully had answers_

"_Good thing we don't have to follow the spiders!" Ron laughed, he had been dreading doing so ever since Hagrid had told them the night Granger was attacked but he hadn't found the motivation for it, and kept putting it off until it was necessary, and he was right to do so, since it turns out it wasn't - the problem would be solved without them. Harry just returned the smile, knowing he felt the same way as Ron, he might not be afraid of spiders, but following them into the forbidden forest was not to his liking either. _

_It was then the moment that would change Ron's life forever happened. _

_Ron's younger sister sat opposite him, she looked pale, thin and was plucking the hem of her robes._

"_Hello" she muttered, not looking at either Ron or Harry. Harry was looking at her as if he had just recognised her. _

"_I need to tell you something" she muttered and Ron learned in as did Harry, Ron felt curious but also slightly worried, he had never seen her look so bad. _

"_What?" he asked and she still refused to look at him - what was the point of coming over if she wasn't going to speak. _

"_Ginny" Harry said suddenly "does this have anything to do with the Chamber Of Secrets?" and at those words Ginny's face shot up and paled even more, Ron also felt physically sick at the sight off her, and his worry increased _

"_Ginny tell me what's wrong" he said, and she opened her mouth and suddenly Percy appeared "I'll have that seat if you're not eating Ginny" he smiled and Ginny quickly got up, grabbed her bag and left, Ron watched her go - but no, he wouldn't let her go. _

"_I'll see you later" he told Harry and Percy and quickly left the great hall after his sister._

The doors were unmoving and so was Ron, fear had eloped him, fear greater than anything he had seen or done on his adventures, the flashbacks tortured his mind and he could feel his eyes watering - but no, he would not cry, he would not cry in front of Ginny he had promised himself that, he would bring her nothing but joy, leave all burdens behind when with her, it would be nothing but the two of them having fun and enjoying the moment. He took a deep breath and was about to take a step when the door opened and his brother Percy walked out, stopping when their eyes locked onto each other.

"Hello Ronald" Percy said after a awkward silence, Ron just gave him a small smile, things between the family and Percy Had not been good lately, with Percy siding with the ministry, however they were determined to move past the bad blood and remain a family, they couldn't afford to lose Percy after everything, it would destroy them - especially mom who had pulled them all closer than ever after what had happened three years ago.

"You heard about Dad?" Ron asked

"Yes. I'm on my way to visit him now"

"I'll give it a minute. He tried doing some muggle medicine and mum's not happy"

Percy looked like he was about to smile as he shook his head and said "that father of ours". A awkward silence emerged over the two brothers. Percy simply held out his hand and Ron awkwardly shook it, Percy smiled and walked past the way Ron had came. Ron turned his attention to the double doors and without hesitation he walked inside. The corridor was similar but yet it felt so much longer on the other sides, as if the walls would close in on him and trap him here forever. He shook his head and cleared his mind of the thought, smiling at a passing nurse he knew his smile must have seemed fake and his legs were becoming heavy as if they didn't want to move, he didn't want to see her - but he had too, it was Christmas, Christmas was a family time and she no matter what would always be his sister. He turned the corner and walked into the ward.

_Ron walked quickly into the great hall where he found Ginny heading up the stairs, Ron quickly ran, jumping the stairs two at the time until he reached her _

"_What's up Gin?" he said - well shouted, but he didn't mean too. Ginny seemed to notice his accidental tone and her face turned hard "nothing" she spoke before turning away._

"_Don't give me that, look at you - you look terrible!"_

"_Oh gee thanks!. Sorry I'm embarrassing you by being so ugly!" _

_It wasn't the words that surprised Ron but it was the anger in his sister's voice. _

"_I was only saying that -"_

"_It was pretty clear what you were saying Ron!"_

"_no…you're doing that thing…..you're twisting my words"_

_Ginny however had stormed off hallway down the corridor, Ron quickly followed but he noticed Ginny was picking up the pace_

"_Ginny will you stop!"_

"_No. I got work to do!"_

"_Homework can wait Ginny!. I want to know what's wrong!, what do you know about the Chamber Of Secrets!" he yelled and she stopped in her tracks and Ron's worst fears were confirmed. He quickly approached her_

"_What is it Gin?" he said, forcing his voice and temper to lower "tell me Gin, I'm your brother, whatever it is, I can help you"_

_Ginny seemed to be on the verge on speech for a second but then just shook her head and turned to walk once more, Ron followed her but as he did a large crowd of Hufflepuffs blocked his way, pushing his way through not too gently he finally made it to the other side - but Ginny was nowhere in sight. Ron was left staring at the empty corridor before him unaware off how this moment would haunt him for the rest of his life. _

_It was that night that as Ron was sat in the Gryffindor common room with Harry that he found out, McGonagall entered the common room looking pale white and deeply upset and she told everyone that Ginny Weasley had been kidnapped and taken into the Chamber Of Secrets - if Ron was ever to face a Dementor then he knew this would be in his mind the second its effects took hold - nothing was worse than that, it was too much, he couldn't even hear the cries of shock or anything happening around him. Fred, George and Percy all looked the same as Ron, dead to world and isolated in their grief. It was almost a hour later that his mind returned to him, he had to save her - that's all there was for it, but how?, all his worst fears had come true, this was worst than a room full off spiders - spiders!, follow the spiders!. He quickly turned to Harry who agreed at once and less than a minute later they made their excuse to go upstairs, thrown on the clock and whisked off into the night. _

Ron quickly walked past the beds that bore Frank and Alice Longbottom and soon made his way to the final bed, the one closest to the window. The chair was out and Ron guessed Percy had forgotten about putting it back, it was a testament to how much the family was effected by this that Percy himself forgot to clean up after himself and show proper manners. Ron turned to look at the bed. The figure of a fourteen year old girl was lay silently asleep - but it was not the fact that he remembered his sister. Her red hair had thinned and turned darker into maroon. Her once pretty face was shrunken and her eyes slightly bulging, her skin was almost as pale as her sheets and as Ron stared at her his hatred for Tom Riddle grew. He often wondered if he or Harry hated that monster more. Sure Harry had lost his parents, but he had never knew them and they were at peace, it may sound cruel but its true. He however had watched his sister grow up, be happy and then because of Riddle all that was gone, and all that he left off his innocent victim was a shell off what once was - and Ron hated him more than he could ever fully think. His mother had told him that what had happened was terrible, but anger and revenge always lead to more pain, but he couldn't help it, the thought of what he did was too much, the anger inside him raged and sometimes he felt that he was as bad as Riddle - the anger was too much for a good person to have, that he was bad for wanting to murder, wanting to cause pain, to kill a man - but he wanted it more than anything, Riddle and all those who claimed him as their lord and master - people like the Malfoy's. Now he knew Harry would be the one to kill Riddle, it was destiny he was sure, but Lucius Malfoy was his for the taking, and he would regret the day he ever gave the diary away, he just needed the chance - just to meet Malfoy in a place, a situation where the murder would be just, and then he would do it - cold blooded calculated murder.

Ron sat down and took his sister's hand, stroking it softly as he stared at her, all the anger disappeared and was replaced by pain and grief, she seemed so peacefully and yet so pained as she slept. He wondered when the last time she woke was, sometimes she slept for months, sometimes for minutes, it was always so unpredictable - which was one trait she had held onto Ron smiled to himself thinking back before her Hogwarts year.

_Ron and Harry raced back into the Entrance Hall, the spiders had told them nothing!. Something about not speaking off whatever the bloody hell was doing this and telling that a girl had died in a bathroom - Ron however was not in the mood for talking about girls being killed by this thing!. Suddenly they heard a sound and both spun around, the clock flying off them and Harry quickly hit in his robes and they both stared at Gilderoy Lockhart who seemed to be in a hurry, his trucks floating behind him - he was leaving._

"_Where you going!" Ron shouted, the anger off the nights events reaching breaking point. Lockhart turned to them and seemed disturbed. Ron didn't hear the talk that followed, his rage blinded him, Lockhart - the defence against the dark arts teacher was leaving when they needed him most - when Ginny needed him most. He tired to bring himself back into the present but it was a mistake……he had lied, about everything!, they didn't even have a actual teacher!. _

_Ron lost it._

_He threw himself forward and did the unthinkable - he physically assaulted his teacher. He screamed curse words as he hit him again and he felt Harry wrap his arms around him, pulling him back. He then he heard McGonagall screaming and shouting in rage._

"_He's leaving!" Ron bellowed to everyone and no one "He's running away, when my sister needs him most!". He didn't know what happened next but he was on his way to his common room with Harry, his brain was trying to fit the jigsaw together, to find something but it was hopeless Ginny would die, if she wasn't already dead. It had been hours, it was sunrise and they were no closer to finding her. It was over and suddenly when he thought nothing could get worse, he stepped into the second floor corridor and saw the blood written on the wall_

_HER SKELTON WILL LIE IN THE CHAMBER FOREVER_

_Ron felt his feet disappear and he fell to his knees in disappear, he couldn't breathe. This was too much, he felt Harry try to pick him up, he could feel Harry shaking, he looked at his friend and behind the glasses his eyes were wet and his face was so pale. _

"_We have to find her Harry……even if she's……you know……I can't leave her in that place" Ron chocked. _

_Ron saw Harry nod, he seemed to thinking _

"_Ron…isn't there a ghost in the girls toilets…..Parvarti mentioned her once" _

"_Which toilets?"_

"_No idea…so lets get looking" Harry finished, determination in his voice and together they headed into every girls toilets searching for the ghost, it wasn't until what must have been half a hour later they found her…Ron kicked himself, they had gone in a circle, had they only started the other way it would have taken minutes!. Not stopping to breath, Ron stepped inside after Harry to meet the ghost._

Ron didn't know how long he had sat there, he watched his sister breath slowly, it was the only sign of life from her, not one finger twitched, not one flutter of a eyelid, there was nothing but the slowly rising of her chest and the smallest off sounds from the mouth. He cherished each moment that she took breath, but sometimes he wished she would stop and finally be at peace in the afterlife where he knew their uncles waited patiently for her to arrive. Her eyelids fluttered and Ron sat up at once as her eyes slowly opened and her brown eyes took around the scene, he analyzed them quicker, the eyes were always the first thing you looked at, too see how deep they were, how much of herself she was at the moment in time.

"Hey Gin" Ron smiled, he talked as if he always had to her, he refused to treat her differently when he didn't have too.

"Hey Ron" she smiled back and Ron's face grew bigger "how long this time?"

"No idea, few weeks at least, glad you're awake now though"

"Ahh, what I miss?"

"Well, Fred and George want to make a joke shop, mum's not happy. Percy works for the ministry now, he was in here earlier visiting, Harry and Me are still getting into trouble and Dad tried to use muggle stitching to heal himself, don't worry he's fine thought" Ron smiled, he watched as Ginny took in and processed the information as if it was precious gold, he knew that the chance to talk to Ginny like this again would be rare, usually when she woke up she could barely remember herself.

"That sounds like dad" she chuckled and Ron laughed too, hearing her laugh could take the weight of the world off his shoulders. Ginny's eyelids seemed to be becoming heavy and Ron could only wish as he watched her eyes lose focus

"Where am I?, no Tom please!" she began to mutter before crying, Ron jumped to hug her but she pushed him away screaming "Tom please don't!, somebody help me!" she screamed as she cried

"Help!" Ron screamed to anyone, where were the nurses "Ginny please calm down, you're safe, its over!"

"I want to go home!. Let me go home Tom!, please!, I thought we were friends!" she cried louder and Ron screamed for help, rushing to the ward door, he made it halfway when a nurse rushed past him to Ginny's side, Ron however didn't stop, he took one last look at his sister before rushing out the room.

_Ron's head was hurting, he way lay in water and before him was the strangest site. A great snake lay dead. Harry was knelt before a diary, a phoenix on his shoulder and behind lay - Ginny!. Ron struggled, his head was bleeding, he remembered being thrown back into the pillar by a spell, but couldn't see who had cast it. Slowly he stumbled his way past the snake's uncoiled body as Harry looked up and saw him, he saw the tears running down his face and he looked past him at the lifeless body off his sister and he understood, but no - Harry was wrong, she would be fine, he stumbled past Harry who made no attempt to stop or distract him and painfully fell to his knees before his sister. _

"_Gin" he cried, shaking her slightly, but she made no movement, her eyes were closed but she was so pale and cold, and he knew that she was dead - but no she was breathing!, he could see her chest move, she was alive!, the tears came down thick and fast, he needed to get her help, they're might still be time to have her!. _

"_Harry!" he said, grabbing his friend who turned "I need you to go get help" and Harry just nodded, he seemed like he dare not disagree at the moment and without another word he walked slowly before breaking out in a run and before Ron knew it, him and the bird were gone. Ron stared back down at his sister and stoked her cheek hoping, praying that she would be okay….that she'ld make it through this and it'll be a forever a distant memory and as he waited for Harry to return all that remained in the chamber was a dead snake and a boy cradling his sister so tightly that it seemed he was afraid to let go._

Ron didn't stop running, he was at the ward entrance, the double doors, st mungo's entrance and before he knew it he was in the streets off London. He raced to the nearest alleyway, he needed to be alone, completely alone. He didn't stop running, he came out the alleyway, another street, he kept running and he ran and he ran and he didn't think he would ever stop, he could outrun his demons, leave it all behind if he kept running, but then he was alone, he was in some woods, trees surrounded him, and he slide down one tree, hugs his knees tightly and it was there that Ronald Weasley broke down into tears.

**A/N - So what you think? Obviously this chapter didn't even feature Hermione but it was all about Ron and Ginny. I hope you enjoyed it and let me know what you thought in your reviews which I appreciate so much and am grateful for. Next chapter should be up in a few days.**


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty Two: Revenge Of Ron

Ron emerged from the trees, he knew his eyes were red but he didn't want to stay much longer, he knew if his family realised he was missing they would panic. He began to make his way back to the hospital, walking through the streets of London the way e had came, the problem with that was when he was running he didn't pay much attention to where he was going so he discovered trying to come the way he had came wasn't working out too well for him - in short, he was lost.

Crap.

He looked around the crowded streets, it all looked the same too him, he couldn't see much anyway as people walked up and down, those "kar" things that Harry told him about were driving all around him, where was he?. Panic begun to set in, if he didn't find his way back his parents would freak, and he had no way of contacting them, he couldn't do magic because he was underage and it was far too crowded - to be put it short he couldn't help but feel slightly screwed.

He began to walk in the direction he knew he had come from, but the roads turned in so many directions, streets became side streets which then became alleyways and it was just a giant maze and buildings and crowded streets. Maybe he could ask someone, but then he remembered he didn't know the street or area, he just knew St Mungo's, and most people wouldn't have a clue what he was talking about and it could seriously cause problems. He thought about heading to the Ministry Of Magic entrance, he knew that street so he could ask people. He quickly went to the first person he could, but they just seemed to ignore him, he appeared to be holding a "fone" to his ear. Ron asked and he asked most people seemed to ignore him, some obviously heard him but did nothing but scowl, it wasn't until the ninth person he asked that someone finally pointed him in the right direction.

Ron made his way through the streets which were becoming kind of familiar to him, except he couldn't remember if it was from earlier today or years ago, but he felt it was a good start, He looked around him, there was still nothing that stood out to him, he looked down at the time, he had been gone over a hour now, his family would surely notice him missing and start worrying, when the best friend of Harry Potter goes missing the Order will surely begin to wonder. He continued to walk, hoping to find the Ministry entrance, he considered heading to the Headquarters but he knew it was further, through the Ministry he could find someone to contact Percy, who could come and get him. He continued to walk, until he finally he asked someone else, discovering he had gone too far left, he began to walk the right way - which happened to be right. His mind wandered to his Mother, she would know he had seen Ginny, Percy would have told her when he visited Dad, he knew right know she was fretting over him and he couldn't help but feel guilty that she was worrying about him when there were much more important things to worry about.

He looked around, he needed to find somewhere to ask directions, from someone who was not rushing around like a mad-man, he turned a corner and three shops shot out at him, one was a large one that seemed to sell clothes, the second was a video rental store and the third was something called "Granger Dentistry".

Granger?…it couldn't be, but then words from the first ever time he spoke to Hermione Granger shot back into his brain.

"_So what do you're parents do, I think it's fascinating about the Wizard jobs, and I plan on learning everything about them"_

"_Em…My father works at the Ministry"_

"_Oh really , my parents are dentists, that's a muggle job where they fix people's teeth"_

God she was annoying he thought to himself, but he surely this couldn't be the same people, still he was lost and willing to hope so he quickly walked up to the shop and walked inside.

The room was sparklingly clean and white. Behind the desk was a receptionist, she looked up at him as he approached unsure what to say to her

"excuse me, is Mr or Mrs Granger available?" he asked and she looked at him as if he had interrupted her most important activity, she picked up a phone and after a while she lay it back down

"Dr Granger is, first door on your left" she said before going back to her computer, Ron moved forward, he had no idea what to say to them, he wondered how "hi, I'm a wizard from you're daughters school and I've gotten myself lost, can you show me the way to any magical place you know in London". Before he knew it however Ron opened the door and entered to find a man looking at him, the man had curly light brown hair, a few wrinkles and wore glasses, he walk surprisingly tall and Ron couldn't help but shrink.

"Do you have a appointment?" Mr Granger asked and Ron just shook his head "oh no, actually I came because - are you Hermione Granger's father?" and as soon as he said it he knew he had the right man, his eyes lit up with realisation and he straightened up slightly "yes I am, is something wrong?"

"What?, oh no, you see the think is sir, I got school with your daughter, and she mentioned you once, and I have kind of got myself bloody lost and I was hoping that you could tell me which direction to go to get to St Mungo's Hospital" he said quickly in one breath and he could tell Mr Granger was trying hard not to laugh

"I'm sorry, I don't know the way to the hospital"

"Oh, what's the nearest magical place?"

"That would be Diagion Ally, I'll draw you a little map" he smiled and picked up a pencil as he pulled a piece of paper towards him "so you're a friend of my daughters?" he asked, but Ron could hear a tone in his voice and suddenly a brilliant idea came to him - the two Ravenclaw had gotten him detention and this was a perfect revenge he thought and he smiled as he spoke "well we talk from time to time, we're both prefects you see, but that Corner hardly leaves her alone for five minutes, and he's a bloody nuisance" and at his words he saw Mr Granger look up slightly, his eyes narrowing.

"Corner?"

"Michael Corner, he's Ravenclaw Prefect with Hermione"

Mr Granger just nodded as he handed Ron the map, Ron took it with a smile and thanked him "I'm Ronald Weasley by the way, it's nice to meet you" and with that the two shook hands and Ron left trying not laugh - he knew that look Mr Granger had, it was the same his father got when someone brought Ginny up, it was the look of a overprotective father, and he could only hope that Michael introduced himself to them when they got off the Hogwarts Express in a few days time.

* * *

Hermione crossed through the barrier between the two platforms and found herself standing in King's cross station. Awaiting her was Terry and Lisa who had gone before her, Michael soon followed and then Padma who said bye and followed her twin sister into the crowd.

"Right, can you see any off your families because I can't and it looks like I may have finally been abandoned" Terry laughed but Hermione thought she could hear some worry in his voice. Hermione looked through the crowd and quickly found her parents smiling at her. Hermione quickly made her way towards them, being followed by her three friends who seemingly didn't want to just stand around

"Hello Mother" Hermione smiled as she stopped in front of her parents, her mother smiled brightly at her, her father smiled too but he noticed his eyes scanned both Terry and Michael as if he didn't trust them.

"Hello darling" he spoke "and hello to your friends"

"Oh yes" Hermione replied suddenly turning to his friends "mother, father, you know Lisa, and Terry, and this is Michael"

Hermione smiled, it was only this year she had got to know Michael, when she found out he was Prefect she had made it her mission to get to know him and found him quite intelligent and he was always friendly towards her. Hermione however noticed his father's eyes narrow as he looked at Michael.

"Ah Michael" he spoke "its nice to meet you" but Hermione heard the tone of his voice she didn't like it, he sounded quite hostile towards him and he couldn't imagine why

"Nice to meet you too Mr Granger" Michael responded back and he must have heard the tone himself because his tone was less than friendly. Hermione shot a look at Lisa who was looking as confused as her, Terry was watching with a grin on his face as if he found the entire thing amusing.

"Why don't you go get put the luggage in the car John" Hermione's mother spoke and John Granger looked like he was about to disagree but when his wife shot him a look he seemed to shrink and agreed to do as he was told.

"Don't mind him, he's just overreacting"

"But why?"

"Its just because what your friend Ronald said" Mrs Granger smiled at her daughter who looked even more confused, as did all the Ravenclaws

"do you mean Ronald Weasley?" Lisa asked and Mrs Granger nodded

"He turned up at the office a few days ago, apparently got lost and made the connection between us and the you"

"but - I don't understand, me and Ron aren't even that close, how did he even know who you were?" Hermione asked and she looked over to her friends who looked as confused as she did "and what does this have to do with dad not liking Michael?"

"I don't know darling" her mother spoke, she too looked slightly confused "we best be off" and with that Hermione knew she would let the topic drop - for now, she wasn't going to ruin her holidays with her parents because of something she didn't fully understand, bidding goodbye to her friends she hugged them all, she noticed Michael seemed to hug her a little tighter than the rest - Terry was still shaking with laughter at the situation which he found very amusing. Hermione followed her mother to the car where her father sat and Hermione told herself she would not bring up whatever Ronald had said to her father, she wanted her holiday to be peacefully - but she would have a few words with Ronald Weasley when she saw him after the holidays.

**A/N - I know its been a while but I've been really busy at the moment, but things should be back on track now. So let me know what did you think in you're lovely reviews. Next chapter will take place on the Hogwarts express and feature a heavy Ron/Hermione interaction.**

**Also, my other fic Dreamland is on a small break as I make small changes in the upcoming chapters, should be back soon. ****J**


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three - Return to Hogwarts

The Christmas holidays went peacefully as Hermione made the most of her time with her parents, she told them about being a prefect and the responsibilities she had been entrusted with and she could tell they were extremely proud of her. The holidays went to soon she thought as she went to sleep on her final night before returning to Hogwarts - something which she was very excited about, she always had mixed emotions when it came to leaving her parents to return to school.

Before she knew it she was climbing aboard the Hogwarts Express and waving goodbye to her parents, she had met Lisa inside Kings Cross and together the two went looking for a compartment together, it was then, when she had found one and had secured her luggage that she turned to head to the prefects meeting that she spotted Ronald Weasley in the corridor.

Before she could stop herself she stormed over to him

"Hello Ronald" she snapped and he turned to face her, he seemed to smile slightly when he noticed who it was - he must know that his childish plan worked

"Who do you think you are?, bothering my father at his work, spreading lies about me" and Ronald had a look of someone who was trying hard not to laugh. His ears turned red slightly.

"I never lied to him" Ronald replied and then ever so rudely turned his back

"Excuse me, I'm not done talking to you!" Hermione almost shouted, louder than she expected and people began to turn and have a little nosey at what was happening, Ronald turned to her again and spoke in what can be described as a voice mocking of authority "you're disturbing the peacefully atmosphere, and plus, we have to get to the Prefect meeting because it started five minutes ago" and with those words the realisation of the words hit Hermione and the horror took over her - she was late to the prefect meeting, what if they stripped her off her badge?. She noticed Ronald was making his way down the corridor and quickly followed him, mumbling under her breath, and without looking she walked directly into Ronald who had stopped for some reason - was he insane!, they were already late!.

She noticed he was pinning her prefect badge to his robes as he turned to her smiling "you can walk past me you know, I've just got to get this bloody thing on" he mumbled clearly about to stab himself in the heart with the pin, Hermione thought about leaving him too it but the urge to teach came over her

"Honestly, Give it here" she snapped taking it from him and pinning it to his robes and in-between she had to slap Ron's hand away as he stubbornly tried to take it back "there, now come on, we're already late"

"Yes mother" Ronald mumbled and Hermione shot him a glare which she was sure made him recoil slightly

"So what did you're dad say?" Ronald asked from behind her clearly with a smile on his face, and Hermione just walked faster annoyed at his questions about before she knew it she made it to the prefect compartment and walked inside with Ronald quickly following her

"Ah Hermione, Mr Weasley its nice of you to finally join us" the Head Boy smiled, Hermione beamed as she was on first name terms with the Head Boy and Girl.

"Yeah sorry" Ronald spoke before she got the chance "Couldn't be helped" and he threw himself down next to Parvarti, Hermione sat herself down next to Michael who seemed to be glaring at Ronald, Hermione wondered if he was still annoyed by Ronald's talk with her father - something which she was not about to let go so easily.

After the meeting Hermione quickly caught up with Ronald, she still had to give him a peace of her mind

"So what were you doing in London?" she asked and he turned to face her and took a second before answering "I was visiting my father in hospital - and my sister, I went for a walk, got lost, ran into your father - end of the story"

"but how did you know it was my father?" she found herself asking, she was supposed to be angry with him but this question had never came to her until now

"Big sign saying Granger was quite a giveaway, and I remember you telling me that they were those dentist thingy types of people"

"when did I tell you that?"

"first year?"

"you listened to me in first year?" she replied shocked

"if it makes you feel better I haven't listened to you since then"

Hermione could see the smile playing on his face, for some reason his ears were also redder than normal and his blue eyes didn't seem to want to look her in the eye.

"Hello Weasley" Michael's voice sounded and Hermione to see he was now standing beside her, glaring at Ronald, who didn't seem too surprised by his behaviour, he looked slightly annoyed however.

"Just thought I'd come and tell you that your childish little trick didn't have the result you wanted I'm afraid, me and Hermione are closer than ever" Michael smirked but Hermione couldn't help but feel slightly confused - closer than ever, she looked at Ronald who seemed to share her confusion.

"Come on Hermione" Michael smiled turning his back on Ronald but Hermione didn't move, she wasn't done shouting at Ronald - only then she realised she hadn't started shouting at him

"Hermione?" Michael asked and this time there was a slight uncertainty in his voice, Hermione just smiled at him and said "I'll join you in a minute" and Michael's face seemed to darken as his gaze moved to Ronald before he stormed off.

"I think you hurt his feelings" Ronald laughed and Hermione knew he was right and she felt immensely guilty. Turning to Ronald she was now ready to shout at him about his childish game and the tension it had created between her and Michael.

"Well I think you should say sorry" she snapped at him coldly and Ronald's annoying eyebrows shot up and she couldn't help but think it made him look like a five year old infant who had been caught in the middle of mischief.

"Sorry to me and Michael - and to my dad, for using him"

"What?, no I, I didn't use him"

"Yes you did"

"no I didn't

"You did and you know it"

"Do you have any Idea how childish you sound?"

"You sound childish too!"

"I always sound childish but this is quite something coming from you"

Hermione seemed to want to say something back but she knew she couldn't and bit her tongue, she gave him one last look and turned to walk off with her nose in the air

"Lovely speaking to you!" Ronald spoke in a mock-posh voice and Hermione just rolled her eyes at her immaturity but couldn't stop the slightly tinge of a smile appearing on her lips.

**A/N - Well there's the next chapter for you, hope you all enjoyed it ****J****. I know a lot of people have been saying the pace is too slow so I've tried to speed it up slightly starting from now - I think it shows in this chapter. Let me know what you think in your lovely reviews. **


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four - Returning and Reporting

Hermione awoke in her Ravenclaw bed for the first time in the new term. As always she was the first one out of bed and now was checking over her timetable for the fifth time since she got back to Hogwarts. She noticed that today she had Charms, Transfiguration, Potions and then Defence Against The Dark Arts, what a wonderful day to return to, she had her two personal favourite teachers in Flitwick and McGonagall. She also enjoyed potions though she wondered how good it could be if Professor Snape teach it, he could be quite offensive and cruel sometimes, and then she thought about Umbridge, and what Neville had said about her and her forms off punishment, she had vowed to keep a eye on her and she would be doing just that. She got dressed as Lisa and Padma began to stir from their respective slumbers.

"Hermione, how long have you been up?" Padma mumbled

"Oh not long, but come on, we'll be late for breakfast and then we have charms"

"we know, you told us before we went to sleep" Padma replied as she dragged herself out off bed.

Charms was a wonderful as always and she was beginning to get the hand off banishing charm. Transfiguration was slightly more difficult, she knew that with the O.W.L.S approaching that things were going to become quite more difficult but she was also confident that she was ready. Potions was a mixture off both good and bad, she did well in her potion but Professor Snape seemed more cruel than usual and finally she headed to her last class of the day which was Defence Against the Dark Arts which she was taking along with the Hufflepuffs. Hermione and Michael were the first two to reach the classroom - they knew it was important to set a good example. They were quickly joined by the rest of the class who quickly took their seats.

"Hello class" Umbridge spoke, a large smile on her face

"Hello Professor Umbridge" the class responded, some doing as little as mumbling it but she didn't seem to notice. Like all of her classes it was purely a theory based lesson that consisted of reading from books, Hermione could hear Michael muttering under his breath, Hermione knew that he too was becoming annoyed with the way Umbridge taught her lessons. The lesson seemed to pass slower than the previous ones and it wasn't until half way through that the door opened and Hannah Abbot walked into the classroom causing everyone to turn and look.

"Miss Abbot, do you care explaining to me why you are so late to my scheduled lesson" Professor Umbridge asked and Hannah seemed to go bright red when she noticed that everyone was staring at her,

"Sorry Professor, I had - um, personal stuff to do"

"Personal stuff?" Umbridge replied, her smile becoming more forced and her voice quite higher in tone "during my lesson, could it not have waited"

"It could off, I didn't think" Hannah said slowly, bowing her head slowly

"That is obvious, now sit down and please open your book where you left off" Hannah quickly sat down next to Ernie McMillian

"where were you?" Hermione heard him ask

"I was busy sending a letter to my mother" Hannah replied

"oh good, I sent one to my aunt this morning" Susan Bones said, leaning over to talk to them.

"Miss Abbot, Miss Bones and Mr McMillian, detention for talking in my lesson!"

Hermione looked to see them looking shocked

"Detention for whispering!" Susan replied, seemingly looking outraged however Ernie shot her a glance before turning to Umbridge

"It was me Professor, I was badgering Hannah and Susan until they replied to me"

Hannah and Susan looked at Ernie in somewhat confusion, Hermione looked over to Umbridge who's face was impossible to read, however she soon spoke

"Very well, Miss Abbot, Miss Bones, I apologize for my assumptions, Mr McMillian, you will join me tonight in detention".

The class passed without further incident.

Hermione awoke the next morning, she reminded herself about Ernie McMillian and was determined to have a look at his hands today to see if the stories of Umbridge's detentions were indeed true. She travelled down to the great hall with the usual crowd but her eyes kept scanning the Hufflepuff table for the blond hair off Ernie, she noticed him, sat with Hannah, Justin and Susan. Hermione sat down on the Ravenclaw table and not really listening to what was being said, every few seconds she quickly glanced at the Hufflepuffs hoping that Ernie was finished and leaving, it wasn't until about ten minutes later however that he finally got up, followed by his three friends, Hermione quickly said goodbye to her friends and followed him out the great hall and into the entrance.

"Excuse me Ernie" she spoke quickly, she could already feel herself turning red, she must seem so stupid right now, and if there was one thing she hated it was looking stupid. "I was wondering if I could ask you about your detention with Professor Umbridge last night" and the moment her words left her mouth Ernie seemed to understand

"Well yes, the rumours are true" he said, holding up his hand which was indeed red and looked like it had been injured recently, Hermione felt a knot turn in her stomach

"I hope someone teaches that old hag a lesson!" Susan hissed before the four turned away and continued on their way, Hermione was frozen to the spot, how could the other Professors let her get away with this, but maybe they didn't know, maybe no one had told them, she doubted Ronald, Harry and Neville would, everyone knew they knew far too much and never told the teachers, but not her, she would not let this go, and she knew who to tell, so without a second thought she turned around and headed straight to the Charms classroom to talk to Professor Flitwick.

Hermione left the professors room with a slight smug expression, she had told Flitwick everything and he did seem surprised and appalled by what Professor Umbridge was doing in the school, she was sure that the proper actions would be taken - but oh god!, she hoped she didn't get a Professor fired. She was walking when she saw Lavender and Parvarti walk past her towards the charms classroom. They were talking about Seamus Finnegan again, she didn't know them at all, but every time she heard them they were talking about a boy - and it was usually Seamus. Harry and Neville walked past her next, talking about not being bothered waiting for someone to stop eating. Hermione turned the corner to the entrance hall stairs when she walked directly past Ronald Weasley, she did plan to walk straight past but she found herself turning around and saying "why didn't you report her?"

Ron turned around, looking slightly confused with a facial expression which she thought made him look like a puppy trying to figure something out and she thought it best to put him out off his misery "Umbridge, for what she did to your hand"

"Wouldn't make a difference" he replied shortly

"What!, of course it would, something could have been done about it, the other Professors wouldn't stand for it, when I told Flitwick he -"

"you told Flitwick?" he replied suddenly taking a step closer to her

"yes I did - he'll put a stop to it" she replied, slightly nervous, he seemed to have a worried expression on his face

"think about it Granger, she has the whole Ministry on her side, she's got the power to fire teachers, what do you think happens if Flitwick takes this further"

Horror hit Hermione, she didn't want to get Umbridge fired, but what if she got Flitwick fired!, she could never forgive herself, she could feel herself getting upset at the thought, why couldn't she have just stayed out of it like she usually does, why did she have to get involved!.

"I'm sure it'll be fine though!" Ron said quickly, his ears had turned red and she could tell her getting upset was making him feel awkward "I mean - Flitwick's not stupid is he, he knows what he's doing, just one thing though"

Hermione looked up at him and she could tell he was both awkward and concerned, he was looking over to the far wall, seemingly not wanting to look her in the face

"Just - make sure you tell no one you reported Umbridge, the toad won't like it"

Hermione chuckled slightly before remembering he was talking about a Professor, but then she remembered about what she had been doing and decided that she didn't deserve to be a professor.

"you sound like you're worried about me"

"well maybe I am"

Hermione looked up at Ron who had turned deeper red and was looking pointedly at the far wall, Hermione was sure she was blushing slightly, but she stood steadied herself.

"Anyway - I've got Charms, bye" he said quickly before walking past her leaving her alone in the corridor, Hermione quickly walked down the stairs, just missing the clock which whipped past the corner at the bottom, she turned and headed outside for her Magical Creatures class not knowing that Draco Malfoy had heard every word of her talk with Ronald and before the end of the day Professor Umbridge would now exactly what she had done.

**A/N - Well there's another chapter for you, hope you all enjoyed it, let me know what you think in your reviews. Next chapter will show the results off Umbridge discovering Hermione reporting her, and it heavily features Ron. It'll be up on Thursday. **


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five – Prefect Rounds

Today had been a nightmare!. Hermione was currently sat by herself in a dark corridor crying quietly to herself. It had started like any other day, she had got up and was ready for her classes, which for the first time since Ernie had received detention included Defence Against The Dark Arts, she had taken Ronald Weasley's advice and decided not to take the matter further as she knew it was unlikely to change anything, the politics of it all left a bitter feeling in her when she thought about it. The class had started well until Terry and Lisa had been talking, Hermione told them it was best to be quite in case they were given detention – and Umbridge gave her detention for talking!. She had never been so mortified, in five years she had never had one detention, and now she had!, what if they decided not to give her Head Girlship because her record was tainted, she only had herself to blame, she shouldn't have talked in lesson, but she did feel it was slightly unfair, she was helping keep the peace in the classroom so people could learn. The rest of the day she was naturally distressed and when it was over she had to go to Umbridge's office where she was told she was to do lines, writing down "I Will Not Tell Lies", she knew the real reason Umbridge was doing this was because she had somehow found out she had reported her, Hermione didn't know how though, she didn't tell anyone else and she knew that Ronald would never tell Umbridge about it – but still she knew, and Hermione knew she was now getting punished for it. Though she suspected it would happen, nothing could have prepared her for the pain that came with writing with her own blood, she felt the tears building up but she refused to cry in front of Umbridge. It went on for what went like hours and finally Umbridge stopped her, peering cruelly at her hand to see if the job had done she gave Hermione a large smile and let her leave.

She didn't go back to Ravenclaw tower.

Sat in the corridor she was letting out all the tears that threatened to spill inside the office of the teacher she once defended when other people criticized her, she thought teachers were kind, respectable, but Umbridge was the opposite, how could they let her become a teacher!, she wasn't fit to call herself a member of staff at Hogwarts with what she was putting her students through.

"Hermione?" a voice spoke from nearby and she quickly turned and hid her hand in her sleeve but she didn't bother when she saw it was Ronald Weasley, he would know why she was crying anyway, she could tell by how his eyes darted to his hand and back, a look of realisation and pity on his face.

"How was detention?" he asked somewhat awkwardly and Hermione just stuck her nose into the air

"How'd you know I had detention?" she replied stiffly

"Padma told Parvarti, who told Lavender, who told everyone" he replied smiling slightly but Hermione wasn't impressed, so the whole school knew she had detention, her reputation was ruined!, she felt like she could start crying all over again

"How's the hand?" he said and she was surprised when he sat next to her on the bench in which she sat, his face was half hidden in shadows, half basked in moonlight as he turned to look at her, Hermione just raised her hand and shown it him, he seemed somewhat unimpressed but Hermione was sure she had mistook his expression.

"don't worry, it'll heal the first time" he smiled, raising his own hand which though seemed uninjured she noticed that there was faint letters written in scars that spelt out the sentence "I Will Rethink My Loyalties"

"This is after five – maybe six times" he chuckled and Hermione couldn't help but give a small smile, but then she remembered something "did you tell anyone I had reported Umbridge, because I'm confident that she knows" but even before she finished the sentence Ronald had started shaking his head "Someone must have told her – my guess, it was a stinking Slytherin"

Hermione was about abolish him for jumping to conclusions when suddenly something hit her and she asked "why are you here?" she asked and Ron's eyebrows shot up and she thought he looked slightly hurt and she realised how that had sounded and quickly continued "I mean – why are you not in your common rooms, its past hours" and Ron burst out laughter

"I'm doing prefect rounds, Pavarti is too busy discussing your detention, so I'm flying solo, what's your excuse"

Hermione suddenly realised above everything she had now been caught out off bounds after hours – she knew she was blushing, she had been caught breaking the rules!, this was so embarrassing!. Ron quickly jumped to his feet

"Come on"

Hermione just looked at him and she knew her facial expression showed just how confused she was, Ron just chuckled "I'm a prefect, you are out of bounds, I'm afraid I must escort you to your living quarters" he said in what she was sure the most regal voice he could speak, the corners of his mouth twitching as he tried desperately to hide a smile. Hermione slowly got to her feet, eying him with a glare that in no uncertain terms told him not to try and make a fool off her, she was not in the mood!.

They walked in silence for awhile as they made their way to the Ravenclaw common room, Hermione didn't even know what to say and then she remembered something which she had been wondering for the past few days

"Do you know what happened to Professor Hagrid?" she asked, the Care for Magical Creatures professor had returned just days ago and last time she saw him he looked awful, his face full of bruises and cuts she couldn't imagine what could have done it, he was half giant after all and more than capable of defending himself. Ron just chuckled and shook his head

"No idea, probably something mental" he said and she noticed he shuddered when he said it - as if he was remembering something awful. He must have noticed she had noticed because he continued "long story, don't want to talk about it" he smiled and Hermione smiled back as he shivered once more, she thought she heard him mutter "bloody mental spiders" under his breath.

They walked the rest of the way in silence and it wasn't until they approached the common room that they spoke again

"I'll leave you here, not allowed to know the password am I" he smiled and Hermione just rolled her eyes, no-one seemed to know that Ravenclaw didn't actually have passwords

"we don't have passwords, you have to answer a question to gain access." she told him and watched as his eyebrows skyrocketed into his hair in surprise "what if you get it wrong?"

"you wait for someone to get it right"

"it's the middle of the bloody night"

"well that's just - you know you're language is terrible" she said, changing her sentence half way, must he say "bloody" every time he spoke?, she was sure he would never use such language in front of his mother, so he shouldn't do so when she was not around. Ron just looked at her as if she was crazy and Hermione couldn't help but feel slightly awkward.

"Anyway, I better get this patrol done, still got to do the essay on the something century yet another goblin rebellion"

"you mean the 14th century's 2nd goblin rebellion"

"yeah that one, you'd think they'd just get the message and stop rebelling"

"maybe their right, maybe they should be treated better" she said, the injustice building up inside her, why couldn't people see that the way creatures such as House-Elfs and Goblins were treated was wrong. Ron just stared at her, once again with his eyebrows in his hair as if she had surprised him again, she realised that she was staring at him and looked away quickly feeling herself blush slightly which annoyed her - she was not the type of girl to blush!

"Anyway, I best do these rounds" Ron said suddenly and Hermione found herself agreeing with him "I'll see you later" he smiled before turning around and walking in the other direction, Hermione turned away from him and correctly answered the question to gain access to the common room and went directly to bed and sleep.

**A/N - There you go, - suffered somewhat writers block during writing this so I hope you liked it, would love your feedback in your lovely reviews. Next chapter will be up sometime in two weeks - I'll be too busy from now to Monday after next to update. **


	26. Chapter 26

**SHOCK HORROR - a update!. Admit it, you lost all hope a long time ago. Sorry about that, but I've been a combination of sick and busy, I did consider putting a Author's note as a chapter, but they really annoy me and I think they get in the way of the story. So Sorry, you'll get this chapter now, and then one tomorrow, and on Monday, you'll get two more….just to say sorry.**

Chapter Twenty-Six - Luna Lovegood

The impossible had happened. He had no idea how it had happened, he didn't even have a chance to do anything about it, but now he was trapped, there was no escape, for he, Ron Weasley had a date, with none other, than Loony Lovegood. It has started like a normal day, him and Harry had their normal torture that was potions with Snape, who appeared more annoyed than usual, he was giving Harry those private lessons, they did not seem to be doing anything for the connection between the two, in fact, they hated each other more than ever. It was on their way back to the common room thanks to a free lesson, they were talking about recent events, mostly the Azkaban prison escape, many death eaters escaping would never be good, more worse news was that one was called Dolohov, who killed his two uncles, mom was going spare. Another was the bitch - and there truly was no other word for her, because she was the one who attacked Neville's parents, to say he was in a bad mood was a understatement.

Harry had finally decided that it was time to start trying to get more people to believe him, because it was fully aware that with no one to blame for the breakout, the ministry was having a hard time explaining and people were starting to wonder. It was then Ron had the idea he would come to regret."I know - there's a family who live near the burrow - the Lovegood's. Absolutely crazy but they own this paper of sorts, normally its full of the most crazy stuff, but I think you could get a interview, after all - you are Harry Potter." Harry looked at him, and Ron knew that he was debating the idea, Ron didn't have a good history for his ideas going down well. "His daughter, she goes this school, she's in Ginny's year-" he continued , but then seemed to curse himself for his choice of words "- I mean she's Ginny's age". He knew Harry was now feeling sorry for him, he could feel the pity in his stare, but he forced himself not to get embarrassed or go red, he would never be embarrassed of Ginny. "Okay" Harry answered "I guess its worth a shot, people can't be as stupid to ignore this now" he finished bitterly, he had been bitter most year about the situation, after seeing Cedric murdered he had hoped that people would believe him, but now, only few people did and they met in secret to meetings. Ron agreed to go and talk to Lovegood, and Harry headed back to the common room to see what Neville was doing, he hadn't shown up to didn't even know where to look for Lovegood, he knew that she was in Ravenclaw, but apart from that he knew nothing about her, he didn't even know what she looked like except a vague idea, he knew she looked strange, and she had bright hair - that's all he knew. Since he didn't know where to look, he guessed that it was best to wait for dinner and see if he recognised her in the great hall, until then, he would just have to kill time.

He spent the time in the common room, Harry and Neville had gone flying so he spent some time with Parvarti and Lavender, which he soon discovered was never a good idea, after discovering his eyes looked like "a mixture of the ocean and the sky on a rainy day"…….or something along those lines, he couldn't be sure, it annoyed him so he had mostly stopped listening by that point. He headed down to the great hall grateful that he didn't have to spend another second with them, infact, he had forgotten what he was planning to do, and who he was planning on talking too, he just walked blindly to the Gryffindor table and took a large piece of whatever food was nearest to him, only when he was about to take a bite, he remembered. Standing up quickly, he walked to the Ravenclaw table, trying to see everyone that sat at it, he then realised that it was full and he had no idea who Lovegood was - this was brilliant. "Oh please" he heard a voice "you're telling me you haven't noticed" "Honestly, my relationship with Michael is strictly platonic" he heard a familer voice and he turned to see Hermione Granger and Terry Boot walking into the hall and then it hit him, he may not know who Lovegood is, but Granger surely would. "Hey" he smiled as they turned to find him blocking their way, Terry seemed to care little, if he had noticed Ron at all, Hermione however almost fell over stumbling backwards, blushing slightly as she did so. "Ronald!" she said in a tone of surprise, Terry turned to her, said something about going for food and then sat next to Padma."Is there something you wanted?" Hermione asked after Ron failed to say anything, Ron seemed to jolt back into reality "yeah, I need to speak to someone from Ravenclaw, there name is Lovegood….but I don't know who she is" Hermione seemed confused at first, peering over Ron's shoulder and looking down the table "she's not at lunch, she must be at the common room" and with that Ron sighed, he had been hoping to talk to her but thinking thinking about it, he guessed it could wait until later

"Thanks" he smiled to Granger "if you see her, can you tell her I'm looking for her" and with that he thanked her and walked back to the Gryffindor table.

Hermione stared after him for a bit, unusually for her, she was confused, what on earth did Ronald Weasley want with Luna Lovegood, she found herself sitting down next to Terry and Michael, who had apparently walked right past her without her knowing when she was talking to Ronald.

"So what he want?" Michael asked not unkindly but their was still something in his tone that suggested that he was less than happy.

"Nothing"

"Really?" Terry smirked "he ignoring you after you're little night time wandering together?" he finished and Hermione shot him a look wishing him pain. Michael however looked from Terry (who was now eating his food as if he had said nothing) and Michael was looking at Hermione with a look that meant he was awaiting a answer

"I was upset, and he was really nice" she said defensively "it was the night I had detention. He was in the corridors doing rounds and I was upset" she finished, her voice becoming small when she mentioned her punishment, her hand had healed but she still felt ashamed by the fact that she had detention. Michael looked at her some more but then seemed to decide to say nothing and return to his food. Hermione looked down thinking hard, maybe their was something in what Terry said, though she couldn't figure out how, Michael and her were friends but she really couldn't see them being more, and she couldn't see how he could like her, whether she liked him or not it was impossible to deny he was good looking, his black hair was sleek and fell over his face with grace and all the other girls she knew seemed to find him attractive, so why would he like her?. She was lost in thought when she realised that dinner was almost over and she hadn't ate anything yet and began to eat while she could.

She enjoyed the rest of dinner and left with Terry and Michael, who seemed to have forgotten about his bad mood and was now in a very enjoyable conversation with her about how their O.W.L's were approaching quickly, both were nervous about it, but confident that they would do well, still. They planned to get all their revision in that they could beforehand, they could never be too prepared. The three entered the Ravenclaw common room, they had a free lesson and they found Lisa and Padma sat in the corner talking, the homework on the table seemingly forgotten. Hermione looked around, spotting Luna Lovegood was by the window, seemingly staring into space with a far away expression on her face, Hermione excused herself and walked over towards her

"Excuse me" she began politely "Ronald Weasley is looking for you" and with those words Luna seemed not to have heard her, slowly however she seemed to notice her standing directly in front of her

"can I help you" she spoke in a dreamy voice

"eh, Ronald Weasley, he's looking for you"

"Ronald?, isn't he the Gryffindor with the red hair"

"Yes" Hermione answered "he wants to talk to you, I'm afraid I don't know why"

Luna seemed to forget everything for a few seconds before standing up

"I think I'll go see what he wants" and with that she left the room leaving Hermione very confused about her, she walked back to her circle of friends. She couldn't help but wonder why Ronald would want to talk to Luna, but found herself quite curious as to the reason.

It was in the entrance hall that Ronald ran into Luna, she just randomly appeared out of seemingly nowhere, scanning the hall for him, he had just got back from a Herbology with Hagrid and he was not in the best of shapes, his hair was damp, his robes muddy and he looked a mess.

"Hello Ronald" she said "I believe your looking for me"

Ron took a minute to actually figure out who she was, but when it finally came to him he felt glad he didn't have to go looking around the castle for her, he did however slightly curse Harry and Neville for not showing up to class - something which really worried him, Neville never missed a Herbology lesson.

"Yes!" Ron smiled "I wanted to talk to you about you're father's paper"

"oh yes, its doing rather well you know, selling more!" she smiled happily and Ron smiled too

"great, Harry was thinking - like he would like to give a interview, and he can't exactly do it for the Prophet, so we wondered if -"

"I'm sure my father would love to do a interview with Harry"

"excellent, so you'll talk to your father about it"

"I'ld love to, we should talk about this more, Hogsmeade visit is soon, how about then"

"Yeah, I'll talk to Harry, but if he can't make it, I'll be there, you know to, sort stuff out and stuff"

"Excellent!" she said, a large smile on her fact "I hope he isn't there, then it'll be like a date, I've never had one before" and with that she walked off. Ron had to talk to Harry. Now!.

He practically ran to the Gryffindor tower, where he found Harry and Neville sat by the fire

"Harry, you doing anything for Hogsmeade" he asked in desperation, Harry looked at him for a second before answering "me and Cho are going together remember"

Ron's dread filled, he turned to Neville "Nev, what about you?" Neville just shrugged his shoulders "not going" he answred clearly still in a bad mood, Ron stared into oblivion as the words of Luna replayed in his head, they sounded worse each time they did and before he could do a thing to stop it, everyone in the school had discovered that Ronald Weasley had a "date" with Luna Lovegood, and not everyone, mainly the Ravenclaws were not happy with the news.

**Well there you go, the first of the four in the next four days, hope you all enjoyed it, let me know what you think in your lovely reviews. Also, what do you think of the characters Michael and Terry, one of them will be expanded upon more as the story moves on through to the end of the year. Next chapter is Hogsmedge visit, and yes, Hermione and Ron will have moments, involving butterbeer!. **


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty-Seven - Drinking and Devastation

The dreaded day arrived before long and Ron got ready for his trip to Hogsmeade in which he would be going - by no wish of his own - with Luna Lovegood. The school knew and to say that they had teased him was a understatement, the Slythrins had been worse than ever, but they were nothing compared to Fred and George who seemed to be having the time of their life with the information. He headed out the common room, trying to ignore Harry asking questions about what he and Luna were going to talk about, despite the fact he was doing to do Harry a favour, it hadn't stopped him from teasing him over the "date". Harry actually found it quite funny, Ron would have said something, but Harry didn't find much funny anymore so he was going to let him have his fun this time - but they would be payback somewhere down the line, of that he was met Luna in the entrance hall, looking around he could see people all over preparing for their trips into the villiage, Harry went of to meet Cho Chang, who he saw nodded over to him with a amused smile on her face, Harry seemed to find whatever was said amusing, Ron knew he was in for a very long day.

"…my father wanted to print a story on it, but Fudge stopped him, he knew that the truth would damage his reputation" Luna finished telling Ron all about how her father had concrete facts that Fudge was actually nothing more than a puppet and that the real Fudge was a evil pixie who controlled him using magic. Ron's face was numb from the cold winds and his brain was remarkably even more so due to what he had just heard. Ron however managed to get himself to smile and mutter the words "that's interesting" and the two continued."So where do you want to go first?" he asked changing the conversation and Luna answered quickly "the Hogs Head, I like butterbear, have you ever had it, it's really nice" she said and began to walk ahead, assumingly to the Hogs Head. Ron struggled to keep up and he wondered if Luna actually knew how to act around people?, because she didn't seem to put that image across very well. She finally stopped outside a building which was at best to be described as not very well kept, Ron on the other hand found it to be quiet strange, it was small and dirty, and almost empty, he was beginning to think that Luna had taken him to the wrong building or stopped because she spotted something or for whatever other reason, however she just stood smiling at him. Ron then looked up the door and any thoughts of this not being the Hog's Head was wiped from his mind when he spotted the head of a hog attached to the wall above the door."After you" Luna smiled and Ron slowly walked into the bar, it was almost empty, two hooded men sat in the corner whispering to each other, the entire place was covered in dust and shadows, it seemed the perfect place to come if you didn't want to be seen. Luna closed the door behind them and he headed to the bar, a old man came out from the back, he had a long beard that was either grey or white, given the dust it was hard to tell, he word glasses which reminded him of someone who he couldn't quite place"two butterbeers please" Ron smiled, he saw Luna pull some money out her pocket but he quickly told her that he would pay for it, his mother always told him to pay for the girls if on a date with them - even if it was a girl that you didn't really like or want to be with in the first place. Plus money was not really a problem for him anymore, not since he was 12 when the ministry paid of a settlement over what happened to Ginny - the irony of it all was not lost on Ron, he always wanted money but when he got it he would have given anything not to have it.

Ron and Luna went to sit at a table, Luna seemed to be admiring the dust filled walls before Ron decided to speak

"So, did you talk to you're father?" he asked "about Harry's interview"

"oh yes, he says he'll be ever so happy to give a interview with Harry"

Ron couldn't help but smile, Luna also smiled day also went very well considering how much he had dreaded, while it was to be said that Luna was strange and extremely wired, but behind that she actually was funny and kind. After the drink, and setting a time and place for the interview, they headed off into the village, halfway however Luna said she had to get back to the castle, saying something like how she wanted to see if she could spot some creature which can only be seen at a specific time. Ron, now alone decided to head to Honeydukes to get some sweets, and after some pushing and shoving he made his way out and finally to the Three Broomsticks.

He preferred the three broomsticks to the Hogs Head, it was much more crowded and loud, a lot more like home, plus he could talk - or try to talk to - the barmaid Madam Rosmerta. He made his way into the bar and found a stool to sit on next to the bar, quickly ordering himself a butterbeer in the most (hopefully) charming way possible. After a while he heard a voice behind him.

"Have you seen Lisa?" the familiar voice asked and he turned to see Hermione Granger stood next to him, Ron just shook his head

"There gone!" Hermione continued "One minute they were there, the next minute, nowhere to be seen!" and with that she sat down.

"Want a drink?" Ron asked, he felt he had been through this once before today. Rosmerta brought Hermione a drink over and Hermione demanded to pay for it herself.

"So how's your hand?" Hermione asked "I heard you had detention with Umbridge again - I'm assuming she put you through that awful exercise" Ron had gotten detention because Harry had done something, but she couldn't prove it, so when the chance came, she gave Ron a detention for something even she would have normally overlooked - dropping his quill had now become "disturbing the learning atmosphere" apparently.

"It's fine" he said, showing his scar to her once more

"So, you still sticking up for Umbridge?"

"no - she's a absolutely foul woman, why Dumbledore ever hired her I'll never know" she answered quickly and Ron couldn't help but smile, if Hermione Granger herself was bad mouthing a teacher, it was safe to say she was the most unpopular teacher in the history of teaching, in fact, Ron thought he might tell her that

"Well, if Hermione Granger herself bad mouths a teacher, you know she's not good at her job" he smiled and he thought he saw her blush slightly

"I just feel that a teach should actually respect her students and not torture them" she said stiffly as if it was the fundamental rule to teaching, then again Ron thought, not torturing you're students may very well be a fundamental rule of teaching. Ron

"I thought you were on a date with Luna Lovegood today?" Hermione asked suddenly and Ron found himself slightly taken aback, he wanted to make this clear to anyone who asked "firstly, it was not a date, secondly, she's gone back to the castle, I forget why" he answered, trying to remember why she had gone, the reason seemed to have completely escaped him, he quickly went on the defensive "so where did you lose Lisa and co."

"We we're outside Honeydukes, it was crowded and I lost sight of them, they talked about coming here beforehand so I thought it would be logically to try here"

It was then that Harry walked into the room, he looked round, found Ron and walked straight to towards him, Hermione saw him first and Ron noticed her gaze and turned to see his friend, who at the moment looked terrible. His face was pale, his eyes bloodshot as if he had been crying and suddenly Ron didn't feel so happy, it was a look he knew, and it never ended well

"What's happened?" Ron asked at once and Harry just stared at him, as if trying to find the right words to say what he wanted to say, Ron was now getting seriously worried

"It's Ginny" Harry spoke "Ron, she died".

**A/N - Finally, managed to get finished, sorry about the wait, been really busy and then I got depressed LOST was over and I've only just managed to snap myself out of that - 7 days!, thought it'll take long to be honest. Anyway here you go, sorry for the ending by the way, but it had to be done sooner rather than later, poor Ginny, and poor Harry, he'll never know what could have been. **


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter Twenty-Eight - Breaking Down**

The atmosphere was deadly silent for a second before Ron turned back to the bar

"Another butter bear please" he smiled causing confused looks from Harry and Hermione who were either side of him.

"Ron, did you hear what I said?" Harry said slowly, and Ron just turned to him and nodded like it was the most casual thing in the world before returning to his drink

"Ronald" Hermione spoke softly "You're sister just died, don't you think you should go be with you're family and grieve" and with this Ron laughed slightly "why, hardly a surprise is it, we've been expecting it for years" and then he continued to drink, Hermione and Harry both noticed how his hands were shaking.

"Well" Harry spoke after a awkward silence "shouldn't we get back to the castle anyway, curfew's almost up"

Ron silently put his butterbeer down and jumped from his seat before turning to Hermione "you coming?, saves you having to walk up by yourself" he smiled and Hermione smiled a small smile back which didn't travel to her eyes which were still filled with what Ron thought looked like pity.

"yeah, okay" she replied and the three walked out into the streets in silence, Ron was walking ahead of them, and Hermione noticed that Harry was looking at him like a time bomb just waiting to explode at any moment, Hermione had to excuse the metaphor, however she had to agree that Ron wasn't nearly as "fine" as he was making out to be. They continued to walk in silence, Ron picking up the pace and Hermione was secretly glad, she felt quite out off place with the two off them, and the situation itself was far more awkward and tense than she was used too.

"So, how's you're O.W.L. revision coming along?" Harry asked beside her, he actually seemed generally interested, or he was a good liar and just wanted to talk, either way, it was better than nothing she surpassed.

"Quite well actually, I've been revising for some time and I'm confident that with the right amount of revision I'll do quite well in the exams" she replied, with the O.W.L's less than a month away she had been revising all she could before the day, she wanted to be perfect. "How's yours revision coming along?" she asked and Harry gave a small smile "its not" he laughed "far to early to be revising yet". Hermione's mind was blank….too early?…..too early!….how could it possibly be too early.

Hermione and Harry continued their talk all the way up to the castle, Ron still hadn't said anything and was still walking ahead of them. It wasn't until they entered the entrance hall that something happened as a sneering voice called over to them

"Hey Weasley!" Draco Malfoy called, and Ron froze instantly, he didn't move a single muscle in his body "heard the news, we've just been celebrating!" he laughed and Hermione saw Harry about to shout something back but before he could even utter a single word Ron turned and launched himself at Malfoy, litrally tackling him to the two fell to the floor, Ron on top of Malfoy.

"Get off -"

Ron didn't even let him finish the sentence before swinging his fist and slamming it into Malfoy's face, students around them gasped as Ron struck a second blow before Crabbe and Goyle grabbed him and delivered two winding blows to his stomach, there was a sudden shout and all three were flung backwards, as McGonagall stood on the staircase, her wand aloft and her face thunderous.

"How dare you!" she spoke with a icy glare "nothing, nothing! Gives you the right to do - to do, muggle duelling, in the school corridors no less!" she finished stepping between them, Ron climbed to his feet as Hermione and Harry walked over to him, Ron could feel the bruises on his stomach

"Explain yourselves!" McGonagall snapped suddenly

"He just attacked me" Malfoy spat and Ron spoke instantly "He deserved it!, he was laughing at Ginny!" he shouted across the room as he rushed once again, only for Harry to hold him back, he thought he saw McGonagall's expression soften slightly but he must have imagined it because the next second it was gone.

"Mr Weasley, you will go to the hospital wing, its clear you are injured" she said, no compassion in her voice, "Miss Granger, as a prefect I'm making it you're responsibility to escort Mr Weasley straight there, you will make no stops on the way, do you understand" and with that it was clear that Ron was being told to leave, Ron shot Malfoy a look which he returned, the look was simple reminder that nothing was over between them, and Ron couldn't wait to wipe the smug look off his face.

"Come on" Hermione said impatiently, clearly in prefect mode and the two slowly walked up the staircase, the urge to run back was almost overwhelming but he knew that he couldn't, he would surely be expelled, and that was the last thing his mother needed right now.

"you okay?" Hermione asked from beside him, Ron turned to her, trying to keep it together, but all he could think about is visiting Ginny in the holidays, how she looked, and she looked before hand, and how she was gone - completely gone, why wasn't he ready for this?, it was no surprise, Ron suddenly felt a cold wetness running down his check and quickly turned away from her, wiping his face hoping she had somehow not noticed, which was ridiculous because she had been looking at him, still can't help to lie "yeah, I'm fine" he said, his voice breaking, and before he knew it he suddenly broke down.

Hermione didn't know what to do as Ron slowly turned away from her, his whole body shaking with grief as he tired to silence his sobs. She was completely at a loss off what to do, she didn't really know him that well, they hardly ever talked and here he was, breaking down in front of her, but the more she thought about it, they did talk, they'd talked quite a lot recently, but still, she felt so awkward at the moment, she could see Ron trying to compose himself again, his hand pressed against his ribs which seemed to be causing him some discomfort, Hermione slowly walked up to him, she didn't even know why but before she knew it she was hugging him softly, to her surprise he didn't throw her away in annoyance or confusion, in face he seemed to do nothing for a second but become suspended in time until slowly he seemed to hug her back slightly.

**Well that's that, real writers block writing this chapter and I think I could have done better, sadly I don't have the time to write it again. I hope you enjoyed it anyway, and just to get you excited about what's to come, below are five little spoilers from what's to come very soon.**

**Five Spoilers for the next five chapters.**

**- There will be a much anticipated kiss.**

**- Two people will die.**

**- Some things cannot be avoided. **

**- Michael Corner isn't as bad as you may believe. **

**- Ron's emotions will get the better of him, leading to tragic results. **


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter Twenty-Nine - Study Lessons **

"So how many weeks?" Harry asked and Ron grimaced

"Till the end of term, and then if I haven't learnt my lesson, then more next year too" he replied, he thought hitting Draco would be fun, but his punishment was just one short step from suspension. He was given detention every night till the end of the year with the possibility off them continuing for the next year, what was worse was he was had to apologize to Malfoy, with Lucius Malfoy watching, the humiliation was burning inside him whenever he thought about it. Right now however, him and Harry were getting ready to return to Hogwarts, the funeral was over and they had to get back to revise for their O.W.L.S. Ron was not looking going back, but he knew one thing and that was he would be on his best behaviour, his [parents reaction to learning what he had done was worst off all, his mother had been so ashamed of him for using physical violence and his father had berated him for acting so recklessly, he never wanted to see them like that again.

Ron and Harry quickly found themselves at Hogwarts via the floo network, they had said goodbye to the family, Fred and George didn't have to return yet, with no impending test they had more time but they promised they would return, Ron knew they didn't want to return to school but they didn't dare leave now.

"Ah Mr Potter, Mr Weasley" McGonagall welcomed as she looked up when they fell out off her fireplace "welcome back, Mr Weasley you will report to me later for your detention" she continued as her voice turned slightly more icy and she motioned them both to leave which they did, as they walked through the corridor in silence they turned the corner to see Neville walking towards them, his prefect badge stuck to his chest

"Harry!, Ron!, you're back!" he smiled and Ron couldn't help but smile back

"Hey Neville, you made prefect I see" he smiled and he could see Neville looked slightly awkward "don't worry about it, never liked the job anyway" and Neville seemed to relax

"So what's going on here since we left?" Harry asked and Neville began to fill them in, Umbridge was still making up new rules, Gryffindor was looking at a record loss in the house cup thanks to Ron and now everyone in fifth year was stressing out over the upcoming exams. Ron wasn't looking forward to walking into the common room, he had cost Gryffindor the legendary amount off points and he guessed he would not be the most likeable person.

No one talked to him. In lessons he was ignored completely by everyone who was not Harry or Neville, the Hufflepuffs and the Ravenclaws were annoyed with him because he had given Slytherin their biggest lead in decades. Harry and Neville tried make him feel better but after a while Ron decided to remove himself from their company, no point in dragging them down with him. Lessons finished and not really looking forward to returning to the common room, Ron decided, and he couldn't believe he had come to this conclusion, that it was best to go to the library and start revising for his O.W.L.S.

"Hello Ronald" a familiar voice spoke out from behind him and he turned to see Hermione Granger walking behind him, a slightly smile on his face "how are you?, after everything?" she asked and Ron gave her a awkward smile, at least someone was talking to him which was much more than what he was expecting after the day he had. "I'm fine, just heading to the library"

"oh well me too!" she smiled happily "so you've finally started to revise" she continued and he would hear the relief in her voice, he got the feeling that if someone wasn't revising at this point in the year would cause her to have a panic attack on their behalf, Ron just smiled and nodded.

They entered the library and found themselves sitting at the same table having a idle conversation that seemed to have travelled through many topics since it had started, Hermione picked a book that he guessed had something to do with History of Magic given the title on the cover, Ron himself decided that he should start on potions, its where he needed the most work, plus he had just been given a essay and decided that it might be a good idea to do these essays when handed to him, not at the very last minute, and even more importantly, do them now while this new attitude he had lasted, because even he knew that sooner or later he would slip happily back into old habits.

"So who's the new Gryffindor prefect?" Hermione asked as Ron sat down

"Neville, he'll probably take it more serious than me" he slightly lightly and he could see her narrow her eyes at him "what?" he asked defensively "he will, I never understood why I got the badge in the first place"

"Maybe they thought they could trust you" she replied, and Ron couldn't help but feel disappointed with himself as he heard her words, they had trusted him, and he had let the whole Gryffindor down, he'd let the teachers down, he'd let Dumbledore down and he'd let his family down, and worse off all he knew that even though he had hit Malfoy, the ferret had still got one better than him, he could hear his mother's words in his mind.

"_And what!" she shouted "you thought that physical violence would make it better did you!" _

Hermione seemed to have noticed his reaction because she quickly said "I'm sorry, I mean I didn't mean to upset you, but I think that you were given the badge for a reason, I think you just can't see why"

"Doesn't really matter now does it" he smiled lightly at her and she smiled lightly back but both knew that both smiles were forced and they returned to their work in silence.

"How long do Lacewing flies have to be brewed to make polyjuice potion?" he asked and Hermione looked up "some idiot has spilt something on the recipe, can't make the number out?" he smiled, automatically showing her the page as if to prove it.

"21 days" she replied, quickly glancing up at the book before returning to her much larger essay, Ron placed the book down and returned to write it into his essay which was slowly wearing away at his patience. In the corner of his eye he saw Hermione place her quill down with a satisfied look upon her face and for a second Ron thought she was finished but then reminded himself she couldn't have finished in such a short amount of time, however it soon became apparently that she had indeed finished

"you've finished already!" he exclaimed in shock, and he noticed she was blushing slightly and seemed to be preparing herself to argue back if he offended her.

"and? She asked rather defensively

"nothing, its just I'm not even half way through, I wasn't even aware it was possible to finish work that fast" he smiled and he saw her physical relax as if now that she was sure he was not insulting her

"I just like learning" she shrugged "I can have a look at yours if you want" she smiled and Ron quickly handed her the essay, to which she quickly began to read, he could see the confusion in her face

"that bad?" he asked and she shook her head, although not too convincingly

"it's not bad, you're just not very clear and you're spelling is quite terrible"

"Ah" he sighed "I'm using one of my brothers self spelling quills, the magic must be wearing off" he sighed throwing his quill down "I'm going to have to do it again aren't I?"

"oh no" Hermione quickly said "I can easily fix this" and with that she took out her wand and began to tap the misspelled words, correcting them instantly. Ron couldn't help but smile

"Did anyone ever tell you you're amazing" he said without thinking as he threw himself back on the chair , he felt his ears burning as he looked up at the roof, not noticing Hermione's face which was blushing furiously.

Once Ron had finished the essay (with some more help from Hermione) the two of them left the library with different destinations in mind, Ron had to get to McGonagall to start his first detention while Hermione was heading back to the Ravenclaw common room which for the time being was in the same direction

"so do you know what you're punishment is?" Hermione asked and Ron shook his head "I think for now its anything and everything, there's a rumour that McGonagall asked every teacher if they needed anything done, I'll be doing whatever they ask I guess" he mumbled

"How long do you have detention for"

"until further notice"

"Oh, how you going to get work done?, if you had detention every night" she asked and Ron stopped, he hadn't thought of that and he could tell it showed on his face "because, if you want" Hermione continued "I'll be in the library most afternoons, and we could work together if you liked" she said nervously, and Ron smiled brightly "yeah, that'll be great" he smiled and Hermione smiled brightly and stopped plucking at her sleeve, something which she had been doing since they left the library

"I'll see you tomorrow then" Hermione smiled and Ron noticed the staircase to the Ravenclaw common room was in front of them

"see you tomorrow" Ron smiled as Hermione smiled one last time before turning and walking up the stair case, Ron watched her leave before turning the corner and heading to detention, unable to wipe the smile of his face.

**A/N - Well, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I posted it so soon because I was really not happy with the previous one so I thought I'd treat you to one I was happy with. One thing I've noticed in the reviews is the feeling that Ron seems to be getting away with the things he's done, which has indeed been happening quite a lot, so I tried to show in this chapter that he is being punished (both officially and not) for his actions in the previous chapter. I'd love to see you're opinions on the chapter, so please review. **


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty - O.W.L..S

Hermione was nervous as she sat eating breakfast in the great hall. Today was the day that the exams begun and she was beginning to worry that she hadn't revised enough and that when she got in the exam room she wouldn't be able to answer a single question.

"Oh relax Hermione" she heard Lisa laugh as if she was able to read her thoughts "you'll be fine, I mean you've studied far more than anyone, with you're little sessions with Weasley in the library"

"Unless you weren't studying at all, something you want to confess Hermy?" Terry winked and the group began to laugh as Hermione felt her face blush. "Me and Ronald did nothing but study, as that is what the library is there for" she responded in her best prefect voice but she knew she had not convinced them.

"Oh please" Terry laughed "you may know that, but I doubt Ronald does, I'm surprised he even knows where the library is"

"Ronald is a lot smarter than you may thing actually" Hermione shot back instantly, feeling instantly annoyed, she noticed a quick knowing look exchanged between Terry and Lisa before they returned to their breakfast. Hermione slowly went returning to her own, thinking now about her study sessions with Ronald, it was true that all they had done was study, but she found herself being distracted her studies by him, she had read enough books to understand why but she still felt there was some other explanation and that she was not falling for Ronald Weasley of all people. It was just unthinkable, she knew at the moment the only thing they had in common was the fact they studied together but soon the exams would be over and he would fall back into his old habits, she couldn't help but get upset at the thought.

She looked over to the Gryffindor table, Ronald was talking to Harry and Neville, whatever it was appeared serious although that was hardly surprising, she couldn't remember the last time the three off them appeared to be having fun together, she wondered if it had anything to do with You-Know-Who's return, not that she believed the ministry would hide such a thing from the public but she knew Dumbledore would never lie and when she brought it up with Ronald she saw the truth in his eyes. She figured that it must be bad communication between Dumbledore and the Ministry that lead to the divide in their views on the matter, it was the only explanation that she could think off. She was snapped out of her thoughts when she noticed Ronald had left the table and was walking out the hall, she decided it would be the friendly thing to do to wish him luck on his exams but before she could stand up Luna Lovegood was already skipping her way towards him. The two seemed to have a lot to talk about, whatever it was it seemed to make Ronald quite happy as a grin broke out on his face, she noticed his hair was growing back now, becoming a lot messier by the day, she wondered if he knew it looked like he had just climbed out off bed.

"Hermione!" she heard a voice say and Hermione turned quickly to see Lisa looking at her, trying not to laugh "now that you're done staring at Weasley, perhaps you could answer my question" she said and Hermione felt herself blush once more, only this time more furiously.

"I was not staring at anyone" she responded, once again in her best prefect voice "if you must know, I was thinking about the exams, and what is you're question?"

"I was asking if you were doing anything over the summer"

"Oh, I'm spending it with my parents, why you ask?"

"Well, Padma is coming to stay at mine from a bit, I wanted to ask if you wanted to come too?"

"Oh thank you, but no, I hardly get to see my parents as it is, plus I promised I would spend all summer with them".

Hours later and the O.W.L.S had officially begun and they came thick and fast, and Hermione couldn't be happier with how they were going, she was confident that she had done well but still she wouldn't rest until she discovered her results. It was on the first Thursday since the exams began that she finally got to talk to Ronald, she was heading out the great hall, and found him once again talking to Luna Lovegood in the entrance hall and once again he had a smile on his face, she couldn't help but get a strange feeling in her, and she decided right then that she didn't like Luna. Luna soon said goodbye and walked into the great hall leaving the two of them stood in the entrance hall, Hermione was hesitant to approach him but before she could make a decision he turned and spotted her and she thought she saw his smile grow slightly.

"Hey" he smiled and she found herself smiling back

"Hi" she responded "how are your exams going?"

"Good" Ronald responded "bloody annoying though"

"You're language is terrible, what would you're mother think if she heard you" she laughed but she knew he could hear the hidden lecture in his voice "so what were you talking about with Luna?" she asked

"Just something about her father's magazine" he answered quickly and Hermione couldn't help but frown at the subject, she knew all about Luna's father and his magazine, how someone who believed all that rubbish was sorted into Ravenclaw was beyond her, Ravenclaw's were renounced for their knowledge and not their beliefs in silly little fantasies.

"So how you're exams going?" she heard and she once again had to snap herself out off her thoughts - what was wrong with her today?

"Great" she smiled as she answered "of course I know I won't know for sure until we get our results, but so far I'm confident I have done well" it was then she noticed that Ronald was staring at her, a strange expression on his face that caused her to blush under his gaze "what?" she asked and it looked like it was Ronald's turn to snap himself out of his thoughts, she couldn't help but feel extremely curious about what he was thinking.

"nothing" he said hastily, she noticed his ears had turned bright red "I..um…I'll see you later, I've got to go find Harry" and with that he turned and quickly walked away leaving Hermione annoyed and disappointed that they didn't even get the chance to have a proper conversation.

She didn't see Ron for the rest of the O.W.L.S until it was time for their final exam, which was to be History Of Magic. She was stood in the great hall when she saw Harry, Neville, Ron, Dean and Seamus walking down together, she was surprised as it was the first time she had seen all five fifth year Gryffindor boys together, whatever they were talking about seemed to be a amusing topic as they laughed at whatever Seamus was talking about. Hermione could hear Michael and Lisa talking about their last minute revision, she knew this was Michael's weakest subject and she also knew he was nervous about not doing well on this test.

Hermione watched as Ron stopped walking, digging into his bag to look for something as the others turned only to say a few words before walking away from him into the great hall, Hermione quietly slipped away from her Ravenclaw friends and walked towards him

"Hello Ronald" she smiled and he looked up to see her, she noticed how he seemed to tense as he did, this only served to confuse her.

"Hi Hermione" he smiled a lop sided grin that she had only recently noticed he had "looking forward to these things being over?" he laughed and Hermione laughed too, but then remembered her own thoughts from earlier in the week, once these things were over, Ronald wouldn't need her anyone. As this thought swirled around her head, she found herself looking into his eyes, which were a shade of blue which deeply contrasted the strands of hair which fell before them. She didn't know what made her do it, she didn't even think but before she knew it she leant forward and kissed Ronald on the lips for all but a fraction of a second before pulling back to look at his face which expressed nothing but shock, and Hermione immediately regretted her actions, he obviously didn't like her like she liked him "I better go" she said and all but ran from the entrance hall to join her Ravenclaw friends leaving Ronald standing shocked where she had left him.

To say she couldn't concentrate on the tests was a understatement, she tried of course and was largely successful in doing so, however she was beginning to kick herself for doing something so stupid minutes before a important test, how on earth was she meant to concentrate with her thoughts being distracted by how it had felt to kiss Ronald Weasley, even if it was only for a second, but if she was distracted now, it was nothing to how she felt when a sudden scream of pain filled the room and she span around just in time to see Harry Potter fall from his chair clutching his scar.

**A/N - Sorry its been so long since my last update, I had wrote this days ago only to accidentally delete it from my laptop (which was stupid I know lol). I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and the Ron/Hermione mini-kiss. Next chapter should be up soon, and yes - things will happily differently at the ministry.**


	31. Chapter 31

**Chapter Thirty-One - The Beginning Of The End**

Ron span in his chair the moment he heard the scream just in time to see Harry fall from his seat and he instantly knew that today was going downhill from here on out. Ron turned to Neville and the two exchanged a knowing glance as Harry was lead out the room, Ron at first rose to follow him but then remembered his promise to is mother the day after Ginny's funeral, he had promised to do nothing but focus on his schoolwork and he was relatively certain that following Harry would lead to something that would be placing himself in mortal peril and he wasn't sure his mother could handle that so soon. Neville however seemed not to have such a problem and was out the door as soon as possible, he guessed that Neville had it covered there was only ten minutes left and then he could run after him and with that he slowly turned back to his test paper, trying his hardest to concentrate on his test paper but all he could think about was Harry and what was happening, he looked at his paper, he was almost half way finished, the paper seemed to be tauntingly long, he just wanted to know what was going on, the thought that something had happened and he wasn't helping was foreign to him, he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable about it all. Looking around he could see everyone itching desperately to talk about what had just happened, he noticed Lavender Brown practically jumping in her seat just waiting till she was allowed to open her mouth, he then noticed Hermione looking directly at him, the moment their eyes met it lingered for a second before she quickly bowed back down to the paper and he could swear she was blushing. His thoughts went straight to their kiss before the exam, his mind was still reeling in shock at it, to say he was surprised was to say the least, he still had trouble believing it was real. Finally, after much forced concentration on his part he was able to answer all the questions, whether they were right or not remained to be seen but at least he had put something at the answer and with that he quickly raised his hand and managed to talk himself into getting excused from the exam. He quickly rose and left the great hall, intent on finding out where Harry had gone.

Quickly he made his way to the common room where he knew Harry wouldn't be but he also knew a certain map would indeed and without a glance in the common room he headed up to the boys dormitory and quickly dove into Harry's trunk. The Marauder's map was there and Harry and Neville were both in Umbridge's office - What the hell was going on?. He needed help, that he knew, he needed to know what was happening and he needed Harry out of that room and for that he needed Fred and George.

"I need you're help" he said before even stopping before the, the twins were sat in the corner of the common room apparently planning something but he had no time to ask as he explained the situation the best he could, Fred and George seemed confused

"So you have no idea what's happening -"

"If he's even in trouble-"

"If he want's you're help"

"or anything else"

Ron was taken aback, he had expected the twins to agree straight away but here they were, being reasonable, telling him not to go and doing something rash. Had the whole world gone mad?

"If it's anything serious, we'll help" Fred said "but we're not doing it unless it is, last thing we want is to be expelled, it'll kill mum"

"of course, there's a way to find out" George finished a slight smile on his face as he pulled a extendable ear from his pocket.

"I'm telling you, Voldemort has Sirius in the Department Of Mysteries!" they heard Harry shout as they listened in from the door next door, the extendable ear was currently hanging out one window and placed on the window ledge of another. Ron, Fred and George all exchanged shocked glances at each other, how could Voldemort be in the ministry!, and apparently holding Sirius hostage.

"Well tell me Potter" Umbridge replied, her childish voice annoying even from far away "how could you possibly know such a absurd thing, you have never stepped foot in the department of mysteries as far as the official ministry records are concerned, so how could you possibly know such a thing as the lies you speak, I thought we had agreed lies are wrong"

"What do we do?" George asked looking to his twin

"Well George, considering we've wanted to leave for awhile now, I reckon expulsion won't be too bad, epically when its for such a noble cause"

"I quite agree Fred, Ronnie you stay here"

Ron snapped back his attention back at the last sentence "wait, what!"

"Well if me and George get expelled, it won't be such a big deal, you however cannot get involved"

"Don't worry Ronniekins, we've got it covered" and with that the twins left leaving Ronald alone to listen into the convosation in the next room in which Harry was speaking

"Just let me go and speak to Dumbledore!" he pleased however Ron knew it was useless as Umbridge seemed to be laughing at him

"Let you see Dumbledore, oh I think not, no Dumbledore to protect you this time Potter!"

"Ronald?" he heard a voice behind him and he span to find Hermione Granger stood behind him, he quickly dropped the extendable ear out the window moments before Michael Corner appeared in the doorway

"What are you doing here?" Ron asked quickly

"Umbridge called for us" Michael answered quickly "what are you doing?"

"Me?, nothing"

Suddenly there was a loud bang from the next room and Umbridge let out a shriek, Michael and Hermione quickly turned to rush and Ron drew his wand and forgetting all advice given to him he quickly followed.

The room was carnage. Umbridge was slumped in the corner, and Malfoy was spread eagle on the floor, Harry was sat in the overturned chair and Neville appeared to have been thrown over a desk. Fred and George stood in the middle of the carnage apparently untouched. They turned quickly thought as Hermione and Michael entered the room, Michael quickly drew his wand and pointed it directly at them.

"What'd you do?" Michael demanded

"Nothing" the twins answered at once

"Nothing!" Hermione replied "look at this place, you've assaulted a teacher!" but before the twins could answer Ron entered the room and disarmed Michael instantly, grabbing his wand he slammed the door behind them, closing them into the room.

Ron couldn't look Hermione in the eyes, she was looking at him as if he had betrayed her, which he guessed he had. He quickly went to Harry who appeared to be asleep, what the twins had done he had no idea.

"What's going on!" he heard Michael say and suddenly Michael was talking but no sound was coming out as Fred had silenced him, Hermione was still looking at Ron with that betrayed and hurt look on her face.

"Fred, George, wake Harry and Neville up" he said and he then approached Hermione who quickly took a step away from him, he thought he saw her hand move closer to her wand, he couldn't help but have a sinking feeling in his stomach at the thought.

"Hermione, you've got to listen to me" he said, even he could hear the slight pleading tone in his voice "you have to trust me"

"You've just assaulted a teacher" she mumbled "you'll be expelled for this" before Ron could reply Harry suddenly awoke and jumped to his feet, Ron turned to him quickly and Harry looked at him "Voldemort's got Sirius, we have to get to London" and Ron quickly glanced at Hermione, noticing her pale at the sound of Voldemort's name.

"We should go to Dumbledore" Fred spoke and Ronald couldn't help but agree, Harry however thought differently "you do that, I'm flooing to the Ministry"

The room was silent.

"What!" all the Weasley's spoke at the same time and Harry appeared annoyed at their reaction "to get Sirius, Dumbledore might not be able to get there in time, he'll have to contact the Order, it'll take ages, there isn't time"

"Harry's right" Neville spoke up for the first time, Ron couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Harry, lets just go to Dumbledore, you're talking about going straight into a battle with You-Know-Who for Merlin's sake"

"I'm talking about rescuing Sirius, he's the only family I have left, if you want to stay here then fine" he said before grabbing some floo powder, Neville quickly joined his side and before Ron could talk them out off it they disappeared into green flame, Ron quickly turned to Hermione

"Hermione, you need to listen to me, I need you to go get Dumbledore, tell him what you've heard" he said as quickly as he could, Hermione however appeared to be in a state of confusion, however she soon spoke "but why can't you?"

"I'm going after Harry" he spoke "I need you to tell Dumbledore" and with that he walked towards the fireplace, "the ministry!" he shouted as he threw it down and was engulfed in flames.

He quickly ran out the fireplace, into a large room with black floorboards, a large statue and fountain stood nearby and just beyond that was Harry and Neville who had turned around at the sound of fire, Ron took one step towards them when the fireplace erupted again and Fred stepped out followed by George

"If you're doing this little brother"

"then we're doing this too" they spoke, Ron had never seen them look so serious, and together the three red-heads headed towards the other two boys who appeared unwilling to wait for them any longer and together the five boys stepped into the golden elevator and began to descend.


	32. Chapter 32

**Chapter Thirty-Two - The Choices We Make**

Hermione was stood in shock at the scene before her, she could feel Michael impenitently tapping her shoulder, turning to him she realised that he was still unable to speak. Hermione quickly drew her wand, performing the counter-spell. Hermione and Michael just looked at each other for a few seconds, she knew he was thinking the same thing, and that is what they should do next. She knew they had two options, one was to stay and help Umbridge and Malfoy, the second one was go to find Dumbledore.

"You think we should go find Dumbledore?" Michael asked and she turned to look at him and making a decision she nodded her head, Michael smiled slightly "yeah, me too" he said after a moment and picking up his wand the two quickly left the room as if they were never there.

Finding Dumbledore was proving difficult, they couldn't exactly go straight into his office and he wasn't anywhere to be seen and the worst thing was the longer they took the more worried about the others Hermione became. She heard enough to know what was happening, Voldemort had really returned, she knew that and now they would be fighting against him alone, and the only way they would be getting any help would be for her and Michael to find Dumbledore and tell him what was happening.

"We need to find Flitwick" Michael said quickly and Hermione couldn't help but agree, if anyone could help them find Dumbledore it was Flitwick, he was head of Ravenclaw and always willing to help all they had to do was find him and they agreed the best place to do that was the staff room. She thought about Umbridge, would she expel Ronald when she discovered their reasons for what they did, she hoped so, she couldn't begin to imagine the shame of being expelled from Hogwarts, she knew Professor Hagrid had been done but she never found out why. She hoped they wouldn't be expelled, she knew the twins probably deserved to be so but Neville Longbottom did not and neither did Harry Potter, thinking about it would they expel him or would his reputation save him. She thought about Ronald, she didn't want him to be expelled that's for certain, she had really enjoyed the time she spent with him and found herself thinking about him more and more when they weren't together however she remembered his face when she had kissed him and he didn't seemed to have enjoyed it, the thought depressed her but she soon dragged the thought out of her head and focus on the matter at hand.

When the reached the staff room she suddenly became very nervous, how would they explain?, they very well couldn't just say "hi, there's a bunch of students who've attacked a teacher and gone to fight death eaters", well they could and they really didn't have a choice but she wasn't looking forward to looking forward to explaining that they had left Umbridge lay on her office floor.

Michael however didn't seem to have such thoughts as he knocked on the door, though he did look confused as if he didn't know what to make of what had just happened and to be honest she had no idea either, she could only think about the five who was now at the ministry and hope that they would be okay. It wasn't Flitwick that opened the door to the staff room but it was the next best thing - Professor McGonagall.

"Professor" Michael said quickly before either could speak "we've….well…..we need to tell you…you see….I have no idea what to say" he finished lamely turning to Hermione who quickly began talking, telling the professor everything she knew since Harry had collapsed in the great hall. When she reached the part of students leaving the school to battle You-Know-Who the professor turned chalk white and her mouth became so thin you could have been forgiven for believing it had imploded.

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention" she said quickly and without another word brushed past them at surprising speed and Hermione could only watch as she left and hope that everything would turn okay. She turned to Michael who still looked confused but her thoughts were miles away with five boys who had no idea of the danger they were about to walk into.

The room was as large as a cathedral, large shelves covered most of it leaving only narrow corridors for people to walk down. Ron couldn't help but feel a chill as they walked slowly and as quietly as possible, this was the room in which Harry's vision of Sirius took place, Harry was certain he was here somewhere but Ron couldn't see anyone but Harry, Neville and the twins, all of whom had their wands in ready to defend themselves. He noticed that Harry was speeding up slightly, glancing at the numbered plates on the shelves as if looking for a specific one - and then Harry stopped and Ron didn't need to ask why.

Ahead of them, half hidden by shadow was two figures, one was on their knees, there arms seemingly tied behind their backs and staring at them. A second figure stood behind the first, stood upright in a confident manner, she was clearly female and had wild hair, and a wand pointed directly at the first figure as if ready to execute him at any moment.

"Haha! Baby Potter has come!" she laughed with glee and he saw Neville tense at the voice and once again he knew why, it was Bellatrix Lastrange.

"Harry!" Sirius shouted "Run!, just go, you should never have come!"

"Don't be so unselfish dear cousin, brave hero Potty is here to save you!" Bellatrix laughed again and Ron felt the Twins turn and he followed suit, and the anger rose in him - Lucius Malfoy was stood in front of him.

"Lets not waste time Bellatrix" he spoke, his voice only causing the anger in Ron to become more tempting "lets just get the prophecy and leave"

"what prophecy?" Harry asked quickly and suddenly Sirius was shouting "Harry just leave!, don't give them anything!". Ron couldn't help but agree with him if it wasn't for the fact they were surrounded by Death Eaters that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

"Silenco!" Bellatrix shouted and Sirius was silent at once, however it was clear he was still trying to shout.

"did Dumbledore never tell you?" Lucius "the prophecy I speak is about yourself and the dark lord. The reason he hunted you when you were a child, did Dumbledore never tell you the answer to all you're suffering was down here waiting for you - all this time".

Ron glanced a look at Harry who was looking both angry and curious and he knew instantly that Harry was taking Malfoy's words to heart.

"Its right there" Lucius said once more "just to you're right, and if you hand it to me, I can tell you everything"

The room was deadly silent as the five of them turned to face the shelf beside them, Sirius was still silently screaming at them to leave but all focus was on Harry who was reading a plate underneath a glass sphere, the plate clearly had "Harry Potter" written upon it but Ron couldn't read anymore

"Harry I don't think you should touch that" Fred spoke breaking the silence and Harry turned to him "it's got my name on it" and slowly he took the sphere from the self

"good Potter" Lucius spoke "not hand it to me, and you, Sirius and the rest of you're friends will go free"

Harry seemed to be struggling internally with his decision and Ron watched with baited breath his gaze looking at Sirius who looked more desperate than ever, his head shaking and his eyes pleading Harry, he thought back to Sirius's words when his father was attacked.

"_There are things in this world worth dying for"_

Ron caught the Twin's eyes and they nodded as if a unspoken understanding passed between the three brothers, Harry turned, ready to exchange the prophecy for the lives of his friends when Ron snatched it from his hand and smashed it upon the ground.

"You foolish boy!" Lucius shouted but he had yet to finish when Bellatrix's shout of "Avada Kedavra!" rang out, they all turned to see the blast of green light leave her wand and hit Sirius in the back of the neck, Ron couldn't help but notice a expression of relief on his features as he slumped to the ground.

"Kill them!" Lucius ordered and they all ducked (Neville and Ron had to drag a shell-shocked Harry down) as green lights shot over them, some accidentally hitting their fellow Death Eaters. Ron quickly climbed to his feet and pointed his wand at the first Death Eater he saw and yelled "Stupefy!"


End file.
